Georgia Judge Won’t Block Abortion Ban, Law Will Keep Saving Babies From Abortions

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Aug 15, 2022   |   5:15PM   |   Washington, DC

A Georgia judge refused to block the state’s heartbeat law today, which means it will save babies from abortions.

As LifeNews previously reported in June, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the state’s heartbeat law can go into effect, saving babies with beating hearts from abortions.

Following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, Georgia officials asked a federal court to remove the injunction against its Heartbeat Law, which bans abortions after 6 weeks — when an unborn baby’s heartbeat can be detected. The 11th Circuit ruled that the heartbeat law can take effect and it ordered U.S. District Judge Steve Jones to retake the case and overturn his decision from 2020 that blocked the law from saving babies.

After that ruling, abortion companies filed a second lawsuit under the state constitution.

Today, in response to a state lawsuit against the ban, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ruled Monday that he did not have the authority to issue a preliminary injunction and block the law at this stage of the lawsuit. The court ruled that it lacks the jurisdiction to block the law under the principle of sovereign immunity.

“The Court dismisses Plaintiffs’ motion, finding that the State has not waived sovereign immunity for claims for preliminary injunctive relief from aggrieved parties challenging the constitutionality of an act of our State’s Legislature,” the order reads. “Put more plainly, the Court is dismissing the motion not on its merits but because the Court lacks jurisdiction to consider its merits.”

HELP LIFENEWS SAVE BABIES FROM ABORTION! Please help LifeNews.com with a donation!

Here’s more:

At issue is a constitutional amendment that passed in 2020 – partly spurred by a prior challenge of Georgia’s abortion law – that allowed Georgians to file a lawsuit asking a judge to issue a declaratory judgment on whether the state or a local government has violated a particular law.

McBurney concluded that the change did not extend to preliminary injunctive relief, which in this instance would have allowed the judge to temporarily block the state’s abortion law while the broader challenge is being heard.

The ACLU says it hopes the Georgia Supreme Court will block the ban.

Thanks to the ban, Georgia abortion businesses have closed and babies are not being killed in abortions in the state.

Following the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas and Wisconsin have abortion bans currently in place while Idaho, Georgia, Ohio, South Carolina and Tennessee have heartbeat laws in place protecting babies from abortions starting at 6 weeks.

As LifeNews reported, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, with a 6-3 majority ruling in the Dobbs case that “The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion” — allowing states to ban abortions and protect unborn babies. The high court also ruled 6-3 uphold the Mississippi 15-week abortion ban so states can further limit abortions and to get rid of the false viability standard.

Chief Justice John Roberts technically voted for the judgment but, in his concurring opinion, disagreed with the reasoning and said he wanted to keep abortions legal but with a new standard.

Texas and Oklahoma had banned abortions before Roe was overturned and Missouri became the first state after Roe to protect babies from abortions and South Dakota became the 2nd. Then Arkansas became the third state protecting babies from abortions and Kentucky became the 4th and Louisiana became the 5th and Ohio became the 6th and Utah became the 7th and Oklahoma became the 8th and Alabama became the 9th. This week, Mississippi became the 10th and South Carolina became the 11th,Texas became the 12th with its pre-Roe law and Tennessee became the 13th.

Michigan, Wisconsin and West Virginia have old pro-life laws on the books but there is question about whether they are applicable and will be enforced.

Ultimately, as many as 26 states could immediately or quickly ban abortions and protect babies from certain death for the first time in nearly 50 years.

The 13 total states with trigger laws that would effectively ban all or most abortions are: Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wyoming.

“Abortion presents a profound moral question. The Constitution does not prohibit the citizens of each State from regulating or prohibiting abortion. Roe and Casey arrogated that authority. We now overrule those decisions and return that authority to the people and their elected representatives,” Alito wrote.

“Roe was egregiously wrong from the start. Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences,” Alito wrote. “And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have enflamed debate and deepened division.”

Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Stephen Breyer authored a joint dissent condemning the decision as enabling states to enact “draconian” restrictions on women.

Polls show Americans are pro-life on abortion and a new national poll shows 75% of Americans essentially agree with the Supreme Court overturning Roe.

Despite false reports that abortion bans would prevent doctors from treating pregnant women for miscarriages or ectopic pregnancies, pro-life doctors confirm that is not the case. Some 35 states have laws making it clear that miscarriage is not abortion and every state with an abortion ban allows treatment for both.