A federal judge nominated by President Barack Obama has overturned a Georgia state law banning abortions after a legal challenge from the billion-dollar abortion industry.
The Georgia law bans abortions after an unborn baby’s heartbeat is detectable, about six weeks of pregnancy. State lawmakers expected a legal challenge when they passed the law in 2019. They hope the case eventually will make its way to the U.S. Supreme Court and prompt the justices to overturn Roe v. Wade.
U.S. District Judge Steve C. Jones heard a request from the American Civil Liberties Union to reverse the law. He claims there is a so-called right to “privacy” in the Constitution that allows a right to kill babies in abortions, even though nothing in the document that under-girds America’s laws says any such thing.
Lawyers for the state told the court that the law is “constitutional and justified” in protecting unique, living human beings from death, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
“Defendants deny all allegations in the complaint that killing a living unborn child constitutes ‘medical care’ or ‘health care,’” they argued.
But lawyers for the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, the Center for Reproductive Rights and other pro-abortion groups claimed the law is unconstitutional.
Abortion advocacy groups claim they are fighting for the American people.
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Polls suggest otherwise. In May, a Hill-HarrisX survey found that 55 percent of voters said they do not think laws banning abortions after six weeks – when an unborn baby’s heartbeat is detectable – are too restrictive.
The findings are not unique. Gallup polls consistently have found that a majority of Americans think all or most abortions should be illegal. In 2018, 53 percent of respondents said abortions should be legal in only a few (35 percent) or no circumstances (18 percent).
“Common sense tells us if you look at a child in the womb with a beating heart and a distinct blood type, and you ask a preschooler, a small child, ‘What are you looking at?’ … They would look and say that’s a baby,” Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said when he signed the law in May.
Today’s decision came after Judge Jones blocked the law from going into effect while the trial continued.
“By banning pre-viability abortions, H.B. 481 violates the constitutional right to privacy, which, in turn, inflicts per se irreparable harm on Plaintiffs,” US District Judge Steve Jones wrote in his opinion at that time.
The Georgia pro-life law allows exceptions for rape, incest and threats to the mother’s life. In addition, the law allows parents to claim unborn babies as dependents on their taxes and includes the unborn baby in census data. It also allows mothers to collect child support for pregnancy and delivery costs from the father prior to the baby’s birth.
