A federal appeals court on Wednesday overturned a lower court ruling and said Georgia’s restrictive 2019 abortion law could take effect immediately. The decision wasn’t surprising after the U.S. Supreme Court last month ruled that there is no constitutional right to an abortion.
ATLANTA — A federal appeals court overturned a lower court ruling and said Georgia’s restrictive 2019 abortion law could take effect immediately Wednesday. The decision was expected after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last month that there is no constitutional right to an abortion.
A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a Mississippi case that overturned Roe v. Wade allows the law to take effect. Circuit Court Chief Judge William Pryor wrote that the ruling in that case “makes clear no right to abortion exists under the Constitution, so Georgia may prohibit them.”
The National Abortion Federation listed 10 clinics that were providing surgical abortions in Georgia before the ruling. At least one clinic in Savannah had already closed following the Supreme Court ruling. Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, signed the Living Infants Fairness and Equality Act, or LIFE Act, in 2019. He has avoided saying whether he favors further restrictions, although he at one time staked out an absolutist position that wouldn’t have provided exceptions for rape or incest.
Abrams said “women are now second-class citizens” and promised to fight to repeal the law if elected. With a legislature even she acknowledges is likely to remain in Republican hands, that could be difficult.