Georgia’s Supreme Court voted 6-1 to uphold the state’s heartbeat abortion ban.
The lawsuit against the abortion ban followed the 2022 Dobbs decision, which gave the authority to regulate abortions to the states.
The state’s Supreme Court ruling reversed a lower court’s decision that nullified part of Governor Brian Kemp’s (R) Living Infants Fairness and Equality (LIFE) Act.
According to the LIFE Act, abortion was to be prohibited “if an unborn child has been determined … to have a detectable human heartbeat.”
Justice Verda Corvin wrote in the decision that the “LIFE Act was enacted against the backdrop of the same United States Constitution that governs today.”
“The United States Supreme Court does not supply meaning to, and has no power to change, the independent and fixed meaning of the United States Constitution. And we have no authority to defy now-controlling United States Supreme Court precedent interpreting the United States Constitution when determining whether the LIFE Act violated the Constitution at the time of its enactment,” the statement continued. “The dissenting opinion is wrong to suggest otherwise.”
According to Atlanta News First, the Georgia Supreme Court declared that the majority opinion “further explains that Georgia courts must follow the U.S. Supreme Court’s most recent pronouncement on the meaning of the U.S. Constitution when determining whether a statutory law violates that Constitution.”
Governor Kemp responded to the ruling in a statement. “I applaud Justice Colvin and the Georgia Supreme Court for ruling today that our written Constitution controls over judge-made law,” he said. “Today’s victory represents one more step towards ending this litigation and ensuring the lives of Georgians at all ages are protected.”
