ATLANTA — The Georgia Supreme Court is set to hear arguments next week in the appeal against a ruling that struck down the state law banning most abortions.
The Living Infants Fairness and Equality (LIFE) act prohibits abortions once a heartbeat is detected, which is about six weeks into a pregnancy. That means most abortions in Georgia were effectively banned at a point before many women know they are pregnant.
Oral arguments are scheduled for the 10 a.m. session on Tuesday, March 28 before the state Supreme Court.
The law, which was signed back in 2019, did not go into effect until Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022. Once the law was set to go into effect, a Fulton County judge ruled to overturn the state’s ban on abortion.
Judge Robert C.I. McBurney held in a decision in November that the ban was invalid because it violated the U.S. Constitution and U.S. Supreme Court precedent at the time it became law.
He based that holding in a legal principle called ab initio - basically, you can't pass an unconstitutional law even if it later becomes constitutional.
The Georgia Supreme Court however has upheld the act for several months, effectively banning most abortions for women, after blocking McBurney's ruling pending the appeal that will now be heard next week.
In their appeal, attorneys for the state called McBurney's ruling "a wholly unsupported theory that has no basis in law, precedent, or common sense."
The original lawsuit against the abortion law argued it was invalid because of a right to privacy enshrined in the Georgia constitution - but McBurney's ruling did not touch on that matter, and so the Georgia Supreme Court will not have any say on that argument either next week.