GA Supreme Court Reverses Fulton Ruling That Halted 'Heartbeat Law'

ATLANTA, GA — The Georgia Supreme Court has reversed a Fulton County trial court's ruling that stopped legislation banning certain abortions after six weeks, known as Georgia's "heartbeat law."

The state's highest court also ordered the trial court to consider the merits of challenges brought by opponents of the Living Infants Fairness and Equality Act.

After the Georgia General Assembly passed the LIFE Act in 2019, Gov. Brian Kemp signed the bill into law, making certain abortions illegal after a fetal heartbeat is detected after six weeks. The law sparked controversy, and a federal district court order that ruled the act unconstitutional was eventually overturned.

A coalition of Georgia-based physicians, reproductive health centers, and membership groups - who called themselves the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective - sued the state claiming certain provisions of the act were void ab initio, or "null from the beginning."

The collective claimed the provisions "violated the U.S. Constitution as interpreted by federal constitutional precedent in force at the time of the LIFE Act’s enactment."

In November 2022, a Fulton trial court ruled the act void ab initio based on Roe versus Wade, halting the law; however, the Supreme Court reversed the ruling Tuesday, according to a news release from the Georgia Supreme Court.

"The trial court did not make any decisions on the merits of the coalition’s claims under the due-process, equal-protection and inherent-rights provisions of the Georgia Constitution, and those claims were not part of this appeal," the Supreme Court ruled.

Justice Verda M. Colvin wrote in a majority opinion that the trial court's premise is a conflict with law principles "that are essential to our system of government."

The opinion later states that the ruling is the Supreme Court's act of obedience and not an act of judgement.

The trial court's order was overruled contrary to the belief of Justice John J. Ellington. He wrote in a dissenting opinion that he believes the LIFE Act is "unenforceable" under the state's void ab initio doctrine because the act violated the U.S. Constitution when it was enacted.

“As the trial court correctly held, Section 4 of the 2019 Act was void when passed because its ban on most abortions after embryonic cardiac activity can be detected, which the parties agree occurs at approximately six weeks after a woman’s last menstrual period, would unduly interfere with a woman’s then-protected right under the United States Constitution to terminate a pregnancy before viability,” Ellington wrote in the opinion.

“ ... I freely concede that, after the United States Supreme Court overrules its own precedent interpreting the United States Constitution, Georgia courts must follow the United States Supreme Court’s most recent pronouncement on that Constitution’s meaning. But the General Assembly, under the Georgia Constitution, must also follow that Court’s most recent pronouncement on the United States Constitution’s meaning.”

The full opinion can be found here.