Pro-Life Group Defends Georgia Heartbeat Law in Court to Protect Babies From Abortion
A leading pro-life group has filed a legal brief to defend Georgia’s heartbeat law in court – a law that protects unborn babies with detectable beating hearts from abortion.
The new brief was filed by the American Center for Law & Justice (ACLJ) on behalf of the Charlotte Lozier Institute and ACLJ as amici. Here’s a statement from the groups on their brief as well as the text of the legal document:
After litigation in lower courts, the constitutionality of Georgia’s 2019 LIFE Act, which protects fetal life from the moment of a detectable heartbeat, is now being considered before the Supreme Court of Georgia. Plaintiffs SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective et al. argue that the LIFE Act “violates the due-process, equal-protection, and/or inherent-rights provisions of the Georgia Constitution.” The Charlotte Lozier Institute (CLI) has joined ACLJ in defending the reasonableness and constitutionality of Georgia’s LIFE Act.
Below is CLI and ACLJ’s amicus brief (with minor formatting adjustments and redactions), in which it is argued that the State of Georgia has a compelling interest in protecting fetal life before viability due to the “mountain of recent scientific evidence” showing that “through neural structures developing between 12 and 18 weeks’ gestation, the fetus can and does experience conscious pain in utero.”
In October, the Georgia Supreme Court issued an order reinstating the heartbeat law that saves babies from abortions.
That followed a judge’s ruling declaring the state’s heartbeat law unconstitutional. The law protect unborn babies who have a detectable heartbeat.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney issued a decision declaring Georgia’s 2019 Living Infants Fairness and Equality Act or LIFE Act unconstitutional. McBurney’s decision comes after a 2023 Georgia Supreme Court decision that allowed Georgia’s heartbeat law to stand as the underlying case continues.
The high court put McBurney’s ruling on hold at the request of Republican state Attorney General Chris Carr, whose office is appealing.
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In a dissenting opinion, Justice John J. Ellington argued that the case “should not be predetermined in the State’s favor before the appeal is even docketed.”
Clare Bartlett, executive director of the Georgia Life Alliance, applauded the ruling.
“There’s no there’s no right to privacy in the abortion process because there’s another individual involved,” Bartlett said. She added: “It goes back to protecting those who are the most vulnerable and can’t speak for themselves.”
In 2023, the Georgia Supreme Court determined that the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Dobbs was controlling and that Georgia’s LIFE Act was constitutional.
Priests for Life National Director Frank Pavone agreed with the condemnation of the judge’s decision.
“The judge ruled that ‘liberty’ in the Georgia Constitution includes a woman’s right to control her own body, but he makes no mention of the person whose body will be torn apart and disposed of as medical waste. These are people with beating hearts.
“Interestingly, the judge recognizes the ‘separate life’ once the baby in the womb reaches viability and says that life can be protected. The ruling is absurd. All life deserves to be protected.
“The ruling is also out of line with the Dobbs decision, which puts abortion policy in the hands of the people and their elected representatives, and makes clear that it is a mistake to consider abortion to be some kind of hidden right under broader and otherwise valid rights to liberty or privacy or equality.”
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