The Georgia Supreme Court ruled to keep the state’s heartbeat law in effect, meaning pregnant Georgians may not undergo an abortion procedure once a heartbeat is detectable, with narrow exceptions.
A lower court is now expected to hear arguments on the broader question of whether the right to privacy in the state constitution protects a right to abortion.
Activists keen to ensure that babies can be legally exterminated in Georgia following the detection of their heartbeats were dealt a major blow Tuesday morning. The state's Supreme Court rejected a lower court's ruling that the Living Infants and Fairness Equality (LIFE) Act was invalid, having .
The Georgia case is not over, because the court addressed only the question of whether the state ban should have been voided because of when it was enacted. The court sent the case back to a lower court for a trial on the separate question of whether the state Constitution protects a right to privacy and whether that right encompasses abortion.