Federal court allows Georgia 'heartbeat' law banning most abortions to go into effect

A federal appeals court on Wednesday said Georgia’s 2019 abortion law, which bans most abortions once a "detectable human heartbeat" is present, should be allowed to take effect.

The decision reversed a lower court ruling, which predated the June overturning of Roe v. Wade by the U.S. Supreme Court. The high court's decision "makes clear no right to abortion exists under the Constitution, so Georgia may prohibit them," according to the Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.

While typically the Wednesday ruling may have taken weeks to go into effect, the court took steps to allow the law to go into force immediately.

"At this time, the law is in effect," said Fred Smith, a professor of law at Emory University, after the opinion was issued.

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In 2019, the Georgia General Assembly passed the heartbeat law that banned most abortions after about six weeks. Cardiac activity can be detected by ultrasound as early as six weeks into pregnancy, before many pregnant people realize they are pregnant.

Georgia law previously allowed abortions within 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Rape and incest are exceptions to the law, as long as a police report is filed, in addition to later abortions when the pregnant person’s life is at risk or a serious medical condition renders a fetus unviable.

Several groups sued to block the heartbeat law claiming it was illegal under Roe v. Wade and that the law's definition of "natural person" to include unborn children was vague.

A federal district court judge agreed and blocked the law from taking effect. When the state appealed the case to the 11th Circuit, the appeals court waited until the Supreme Court could deliver its opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization — the case that eventually overturned Roe v. Wade.

Arguments that a “personhood” provision in the law is unconstitutionally vague were rejected by the appeals court. The provision grants personhood to a fetus, allowing a fetus to have the same legal rights that people have after birth.

"I think the personhood provision is going to raise all kinds of questions in the years ahead," Smith said. "(Now) the really big questions move beyond the federal courts and they move to the state courts."

Contributing: The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY NETWORK: Georgia 'heartbeat' abortion law: Federal court allows law to take effect