ATLANTA — An appeals court ruled Wednesday that the state's "heartbeat" law could take effect in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark decision in June that said a right to an abortion is no longer protected under the U.S. Constitution.
Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr said the law would take effect immediately.
"Today, our arguments have prevailed, meaning the Eleventh Circuit has allowed Georgia’s LIFE Act to take effect immediately,” he said in a statement.
The state law, which bans abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected, which is about 6 weeks, was signed into law by Gov. Brian Kemp in 2019, but it had been blocked from taking effect after several women's health centers filed suit.
Following the Supreme Court's decision reversing the landmark case Roe v. Wade, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr wrote to the appeals court that it could no longer keep Georgia's Living Infants Fairness and Equality Act -- the formal name for the heartbeat legislation -- from becoming law.
In a brief filed Friday, June 24 - the same day the Supreme Court's decision on Roe came down - the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals directed both parties tied up in the lawsuit to make their argument on how the new SCOTUS ruling would impact their appeal. Both sides had until July 14 to file a 10-page brief on the matter.
Now, after considering the arguments on both sides, the law will take effect.
"We vacate the injunction, reverse the judgment in favor of the abortionists, and remand with instructions to enter judgment in favor of the state officials," the court's opinion said.
Shortly after the appeals court handed down their opinion, Kemp said he was "overjoyed" that the court has "paved the way for the implementation of Georgia’s Life Act."
"As mothers navigate pregnancy, birth, parenthood, or alternative options to parenthood like adoption – Georgia’s public, private, and nonprofit sectors stand ready to provide the resources they need to be safe, healthy and informed," he said.
Supporters of the LIFE Act had been pushing for it to be enacted immediately in light of the SCOTUS ruling, which places the decision of whether or not to ban or restrict abortions back in the state's hands.
"It means it’s the beginning of a post-Roe Georgia," Martha Zoller, executive director of Georgia Life Alliance said. "I will not accept the position that somehow this hurts women’s health care. I think this helps women’s health care. I think it gives clarity and takes care of things in a local way.”
Opponents of the LIFE Act said advocates must now push for other means to protect a woman's choice to have children.
Dazon Diallo, founder and president of reproductive rights organization Sister Love, said she will put an emphasis on voting for change.
"It would be an understatement to say how disappointed we are, but we’re not surprised and we’re not shocked," Diallo said. "Now we have a real impetus to figure out ensuring contraceptive options that people have, they’re able to access, use them and use them robustly.”
"This issue is not going to go away" in Georgia, said Georgia State University College of Law Professor Anthony Michael Kreis.
Kreis told 11Alive Wednesday he expects abortion-rights advocates will file a new lawsuit – in the state courts, this time – claiming the law violates a person's right to privacy as guaranteed by the Georgia Constitution, "alleging that the Georgia State Constitution protects the right to an abortion greater than what the Life Act otherwise provides, and will ask the state courts to temporarily and then permanently enjoin the state from enforcing it... I think ultimately this will be a question that ends up before the Georgia Supreme Court, and that will be a case that will have to be resolved by the Georgia Supreme Court justices.”
"We will continue to resist," said Andrea Young, the Executive Director of ACLU Georgia, in Atlanta, who opposes the new law.
Young confirmed that filing suit and challenging it in the state courts is one of her options, now.
The other, she said, is to encourage Georgia voters to elect pro-abortion-rights advocates to state offices this fall.
“They can vote their values on this issue in November," Young said. "This is political. The Supreme Court has not said that abortion is illegal... This is a matter for the states to decide. And so the voters will have an opportunity in November to make themselves heard on what kind of law, what kind of practice, they want to be available in Georgia."
And that's what the Democrats' nominee for Georgia Governor, Stacey Abrams, is telling voters.
“This law is wrong, and must be struck down," Abrams said in Atlanta on Wednesday. "And I will be the governor to repeal it... I'm angry, I'm enraged.... and I am pro-choice because of my faith... I believe very much that we can not only reverse that law but that it can be one of the first acts we take up when I become governor of Georgia."
Governor Kemp is not saying, yet, if he and fellow Republicans will now go further legislatively, and support a complete ban on abortions in Georgia.