Today the supreme court ruled a dramatic change in abortion laws, striking down the landmark roe v. wade decision and eliminating the constitutional right to abortion. This ruling returns abortion laws to states, which can decide individually whether to ban or allow abortions.
Georgia legislators may use this as an opportunity to resuscitate the 2019 heartbeat bill, which at the time was discarded by a federal judge for it being unconstitutional. The state appealed before the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, and a decision could be made within the coming weeks or months. Ron Carlson, Professor Emeritus at UGA’s law school, offers a tentative timeline on this process.
The heartbeat law bans abortions in Georgia at the first sign of a fetal heartbeat, essentially six weeks into a pregnancy, with exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother. Some states with similar laws, such as Louisiana and Missouri, won’t allow any exceptions, but opposers of the heartbeat bill say rates of unwanted pregnancy in Georgia will skyrocket regardless.