{"id":38466,"date":"2022-07-20T17:18:37","date_gmt":"2022-07-20T21:18:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/?p=38466"},"modified":"2022-07-20T17:19:02","modified_gmt":"2022-07-20T21:19:02","slug":"federal-court-upholds-georgias-controversial-heartbeat-abortion-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/?p=38466","title":{"rendered":"Federal court upholds Georgia’s controversial ‘heartbeat’ abortion law"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The 11th<\/sup>\u00a0Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals upheld Georgia\u2019s \u201cheartbeat\u201d abortion law<\/a> Wednesday, finding the ban on abortions after detection of a fetal heartbeat at around six weeks is legal. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The victory for Gov. Brian Kemp and other pro-life Georgians was made possible by last month\u2019s U.S. Supreme Court decision that overruled\u00a0Roe v. Wade<\/em>\u00a0and found that there is no constitutional right to abortion. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Georgia\u2019s General Assembly passed legislation<\/a> in 2019 banning most abortions in Georgia after a fetal heartbeat could be detected \u2013 usually around six weeks of pregnancy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ACLU, SisterSong, Planned Parenthood, and other reproductive care providers successfully sued to block the law from taking effect in U.S. District Court in 2020.  The state then appealed that decision to the 11th<\/sup> Circuit Court.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Late last week, both sides in the Georgia case filed new briefs laying out their arguments in light of the Supreme Court ruling. Wednesday\u2019s decision confirms that the Georgia law will stand and reiterates the Supreme Court\u2019s position that there is no constitutional right to an abortion.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The abortion rights groups had also argued that the Georgia heartbeat law was unconstitutional because its definition of \u201cnatural person\u201d was vague. The Georgia law specifies that a natural person includes \u201can unborn child\u201d and that unborn children can be counted for purposes of population-based determinations.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That vague definition of the term could threaten the constitutional rights of physicians providing care for pregnant women as well as individuals\u2019 rights to make decisions about procreation, the plaintiffs had maintained. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the vagueness argument of \u201cnatural person\u201d did not convince the appellate court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe act\u2019s definition of natural person is not unconstitutionally vague on its face,\u201d the opinion stated. It is hard to see any vagueness.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abortion rights advocates criticized the ruling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis announcement is an affront to our personal rights and goes against the will of the vast majority of Georgians who believe in the bodily autonomy of all in our state,\u201d said Amy Kennedy, vice president of external affairs for Planned Parenthood Southeast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kemp praised the decision for finally allowing Georgia\u2019s heartbeat law to take effect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs mothers navigate pregnancy, birth, parenthood, or alternative options to parenthood \u2013 like adoption – Georgia\u2019s public, private, and nonprofit sectors stand ready to provide the resources they need to be safe, healthy, and informed,\u201d the governor said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWorking with the Georgia General Assembly, we have made significant strides on several fronts – such as expanding pregnancy and parental resources, extending health coverage to a full year for mothers after birth, improving our adoption system, and reforming foster care.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n[mailerlite_form form_id=2]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 11th\u00a0Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals upheld Georgia\u2019s \u201cheartbeat\u201d abortion law Wednesday, finding the ban on abortions after detection of a fetal heartbeat at around six weeks is legal. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38467,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[8507,8782],"class_list":["post-38466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-abortion","tag-georgia","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38466\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}