Georgia Supreme Court temporarily reinstates heartbeat law

Georgia’s highest court ruled Monday that a state law protecting unborn babies from abortion after about six weeks in the womb, or roughly when a heartbeat can first be detected, would remain in place. That decision came days after a lower court ruled that the statute is unconstitutional. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney struck down the protective measure last week, calling the measure arbitrary. The government may only set boundaries over a woman’s body once a baby is viable enough for society to care for the separate life, McBurney wrote. With the heartbeat law overturned, unborn babies would not be protected from abortion in the state until roughly 22-weeks. State prosecutors appealed McBurney’s decision and petitioned the state’s Supreme Court to keep the heartbeat law in place while judges considered the state’s appeal. The high court granted the state’s petition.

Were the justices in agreement? The court did not issue an opinion explaining the majority’s ruling. Of the court’s nine sitting justices, only six wholly agreed with the ruling. Presiding Justice Nels S.D. Peterson did not participate and Justice Andrew A. Pinson was disqualified, according to the order. The remaining justice penned a partial dissent. Justice John J. Ellington argued that granting the state’s petition would predetermine a favorable outcome in the state’s overall appeal. The state should not be enforcing laws that lower courts have already determined to be unconstitutional, even if that determination is being appealed, he wrote.

The high court’s Monday order mirrored another ruling in the same case several years back. McBurney previously attempted to strike down the heartbeat law in 2022, as a response to litigation over the law’s constitutionality. However, the Georgia Supreme Court gave an emergency order overturning McBurney’s 2022 ruling and reinstating the heartbeat law as litigation around the statute continued. The high court’s ruling on Monday is virtually identical, allowing the heartbeat law to take effect as litigation continues.

Dig deeper: Read my report from last week’s lower court ruling for more background on the case.