Georgia’s ban on most abortions after about six weeks into a pregnancy is now in effect after a three-judge panel ruled Wednesday that the 2019 law can no longer be seen as unconstitutional.
Wednesday’s ruling comes nearly a month after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and left it to states to decide whether to limit access to abortion. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals paused its deliberations on Georgia’s anti-abortion law last year in anticipation of the Supreme Court’s ruling on Mississippi’s 15-week ban.
The Supreme Court’s ruling “makes clear that no right to abortion exists under the Constitution, so Georgia may prohibit them,” wrote Chief Judge William Pryor.
Georgia’s law, which has been on hold since 2020, also redefines “natural person” to include the unborn. Wednesday’s decision rejected claims that considering an unborn child a “natural person” is constitutionally vague.
“When focusing on the text, as we must, it is hard to see any vagueness,” reads the court’s opinion. “The Act defines a natural person to include unborn humans in the womb at any stage of development.”
But the judges acknowledged the application of the definition could be a different story. Georgia’s law also allows expecting parents to claim their unborn child as a dependent, requires the father to pay child support while their offspring is still in utero, and deems an unborn child to be a “natural person.”
“To be sure, there might be vague applications of that definition in other provisions of the Georgia Code,” Pryor wrote. But any argument that an application of the law violates constitutional rights – such as a physician’s right to pursue their work caring for pregnant patients free from unreasonable government interference – should be made in an “as-applied manner.”
Opponents of the law signaled Wednesday that such constitutional challenges to specific Georgia statutes touched by the new definition of “natural person” may be pursued.
“The ACLU of Georgia will continue to fight for abortion rights for the women of Georgia with all of the tools at our disposal,” said Andrea Young, executive director of the ACLU of Georgia, which represents the abortion providers challenging the law. “At the same time, Georgia voters have the opportunity to vote out politicians who oppose a woman’s right to decide when, whether, and with whom she wants to have a family.”
The ACLU and abortion rights group had expected the law to take effect later this summer. They blasted the court’s order that the law immediately take effect.
“This is a highly unorthodox action that will immediately push essential abortion care out of reach for patients beyond the earliest stages of pregnancy,” the groups said in a joint statement.
“Across the state, providers are now being forced to turn away patients who thought they would be able to access abortion, immediately changing the course of their lives and futures. This is horrific. We’ll continue doing everything in our power to fight for abortion access in Georgia in the face of these harmful attacks on people’s ability to control if and when to have a child.”
Circuit Judge Barbara Lagoa and Judge Harvey Schlesinger also served on the panel deciding the state’s appeal.
“It is the constitutional duty of the Georgia Attorney General to defend the laws of our state,” Attorney General Chris Carr said in a statement. “Today, our arguments have prevailed, meaning the Eleventh Circuit has allowed Georgia’s LIFE Act to take effect immediately.”
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