Georgia abortion law challenge now focused on ‘personhood’
Court Watch
Lawyers for the state of Georgia urged a federal appeals court to allow the state’s 2019 abortion law to take effect now that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled there is no constitutional right to an abortion.
Ruling in a case out of Mississippi, the Supreme Court on June 24 overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, which had protected the right to an abortion. Because the groups challenging Georgia’s law relied on that precedent, they “now have no case,” lawyers for the state wrote in a brief submitted Friday to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Attorneys for groups challenging the law acknowledged that the ruling allows the state’s ban on many abortions to take effect. But they argued in their brief that a provision that grants “personhood” to a fetus should remain blocked.
The Georgia law bans most abortions once a “detectable human heartbeat” is present. Cardiac activity can be detected by ultrasound in cells within an embryo that will eventually become the heart as early as six weeks into a pregnancy, before many women realize they’re pregnant.
The Georgia law includes exceptions for rape and incest, as long as a police report is filed. It also provides for later abortions when the mother’s life is at risk or a serious medical condition renders a fetus unviable. The personhood provision gives a fetus the same legal rights as people have after birth.
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