Effective immediately, abortions cannot be performed in the state of Georgia after six weeks of pregnancy, ruled the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Thursday, siding with state lawmakers.
LIFE Act: The Living Infants Fairness and Equality Act, originally signed by Gov. Brian Kemp in 2019, ruled that an abortion could not take place after six weeks of pregnancy.
- The court also ruled that the LIFE act clearly defines a “natural person,” which the law describes as “any human being including an unborn child.” An unborn child is defined in the act as “a member of the species of Homo sapiens at any stage of development who is carried in the womb.”
- “Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health makes clear that no right to abortion exists under the Constitution, so Georgia may prohibit them. And the expanded definition of natural person is not vague on its face,” the judges wrote.
Looking back: Last summer, a federal judge deemed Georgia’s LIFE act as unconstitutional because it denied a woman’s right to access abortion, The New York Times reports.
- The state of Georgia appealed the decision, but the Court of Appeals delayed their decision while waiting for the Supreme Court to make a decision on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, which overruled Roe v. Wade, the case that had legalized abortion in 1973.
A protracted battle: The decision is the latest development in the legal battle over abortion. Since the Supreme Court’s decision some states have moved to protect the right to abortion, but many have imposed restrictions.