A judge in Georgia on Nov. 15 found the state’s ban on abortions unconstitutional and ordered authorities to stop enforcing it.
Georgia House Bill 481, known as the LIFE Act, declared that unborn children were living people with rights and banned abortions once a heartbeat was detected.
At the time it was enacted, though, key portions violated the U.S. Constitution and Supreme Court precedent, principally the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that concluded access to abortion was a constitutional right, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney said in a 15-page ruling.
“At that time—the spring of 2019—everywhere in America, including Georgia, it was unequivocally unconstitutional for governments—federal, state, or local—to ban abortions before viability,” McBurney said. “And yet the LIFE Act, through Section 4, did just that: a doctor faced with a request to end a pre-viability pregnancy, i.e., at a time when the fetus absolutely could not survive outside the mother’s womb, would be committing a felony if she honored her patient’s wishes.”…