Appeals Court Greenlights Georgia’s 6-Week Abortion Ban
Abortion rights defenders on Wednesday were down but determined after a federal appeals court lifted an injunction on Georgia’s six-week abortion ban, allowing the draconian law to take immediate effect.
Writing for a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, Judge William Pryor said that the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling voiding nearly 50 years of constitutional abortion rights “makes clear that no right to abortion exists under the Constitution, so Georgia may prohibit them.”
Pryor—a George W. Bush appointee who once called Roe v. Wade “the worst abomination in the history of constitutional law”—added that “it is hard to see any vagueness” in H.B. 481, the 2019 Georgia anti-choice law that “defines a natural person to include unborn humans in the womb at any stage of development.”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports:
Georgia’s new law is different from other states’ “heartbeat” statutes because it includes so-called personhood provisions, where rights are extended to an embryo once fetal cardiac activity can be detected.
Experts have noted that fetal “heartbeat” laws are inherently flawed, as what’s being detected in a six-week-old fetus is little more than cells and electrical activity.
Earlier this month, a federal judge blocked enforcement of Arizona’s so-called “personhood” law.
The implementation of Georgia’s six-week ban comes as an effort to codify reproductive rights nationwide via the House-approved Women’s Health Protection Act has stalled amid opposition from Senate Republicans and right-wing Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia.
The ACLU called the appellate court’s move “unprecedented.”
“The court took this action without request from the state and outside of normal court procedures,” the group tweeted. “Many people don’t even know they’re pregnant at six weeks. People in Georgia—and people everywhere—deserve access to abortion care without delay or interference.”
Originally published at Commondreams.org.
Have Your Say!
Have you been affected by the issues raised in this story? Please share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@soundvision.com.
Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a Muslim Network TV’s representative. You can also get in touch in the following ways:
Tweet: @MuslimNetworkTV
We must take charge of our narrative. Research indicates that 92% of their Muslim coverage is negative. Help us change that.
