Normally, the Georgia ruling wouldn’t take effect for weeks, but the court issued a second order Wednesday allowing the law to take effect immediately.
ATLANTA — Georgia’s abortion law changed so abruptly Wednesday afternoon that some patients who were in an office waiting for abortions were told that what had been legal that morning was no longer legal in the state and sent home.
The law, which had been barred from taking effect, bans most abortions once a"detectable human heartbeat"is present. Cardiac activity can be detected by ultrasound in cells within an embryo that will eventually become the heart as early as six weeks into a pregnancy, before many pregnancies are detected.
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a Mississippi case that overturned Roe v. Wade allows the law to take effect. The preliminary injunction in Louisiana is the latest development amid a flurry of court challenges to state “trigger” laws that were crafted in anticipation of Roe being overturned.
“It really is about what is going to be the best plan for the person at the end of the day,” said Monica Simpson, executive director of Atlanta-based SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, which advocates for abortion rights particularly on behalf of nonwhite women. Simpson and abortion providers said they work closely with abortion funds that can provide financial assistance for travel, child care and other needs.
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