The 2019 bill, sponsored by state Rep. Ed Setzler (R-Acworth) and titled the “Living Infants Fairness and Equality Act,” sparked fierce debate in the General Assembly, passed on party lines and fulfilled a campaign pledge from Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican with three daughters.

It was blocked in October 2019 after several pro-abortion groups – including Planned Parenthood and the Atlanta-based nonprofit SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective – sued in federal court to stop the ban from taking effect.

Why It Matters

SisterSong’s executive director, Monica Simpson, stressed Georgia minority and low-income communities would be most harmed by the abortion ban. State data shows roughly 20,600 abortions were performed on Black women in Georgia in 2020, more than triple the nearly 6,200 abortions performed on white women. 

Simpson also said banning abortions could worsen Georgia’s maternal mortality rate, which is among the highest in the U.S. – particularly for Black women, who are three to four times more at risk of dying from complications due to pregnancy and childbirth than white women, a 2019 General Assembly study found. 

“We’re creating a very dire situation for those who get pregnant in this state,” Simpson said. “It sends a very clear message that this country is sending us back to a day when our bodies were extremely compromised.”

Supporters of Georgia’s abortion ban called the high court’s potential decision long overdue, hailing it as a legal outcome that lets each state decide whether to allow abortions.

“This draft opinion, if accurate, would simply – and rightly – empower states to protect life without the stranglehold of the Roe decision restricting them,” Martha Zoller, executive director of the Georgia Life Alliance, said on the organization’s Facebook page today. “This decision would finally rectify that grave error.”

News of the draft opinion has also stirred speculation that Republican state lawmakers could move to restrict abortion practices even further than the 2019 bill proposing a ban on abortions after six weeks. 

Zoller told State Affairs that her group supports a bill to ban the mailing of abortion pills that cleared the state Senate earlier this year but stalled in the state House of Representatives. “We don't see it as restricting but making safer a process that was impacted by Covid-19 changes,” she said.

What’s Next

Georgia’s abortion ban would not take immediate effect if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v Wade, said Sean Young, the state legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s (ACLU) Georgia chapter, which is representing SisterSong.

If Roe is overturned, Young said Judge William Pryor Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit – where the case is currently being considered – would likely ask the ACLU and state legal officials to send in briefs presenting their post-Supreme Court decision arguments.

After that, the timing for when Georgia’s abortion ban could take effect is up in the air, Young said. “It could take days or weeks, or longer,” he said. “I just don’t know. But Georgia’s abortion ban will remain blocked unless the appeals court says otherwise.”

The first draft opinion of the Supreme Court that was leaked to POLITICO would likely undergo changes and additional drafts. The Supreme Court’s decision will not be final until it is published later this year. 

Anthony Michael Kreis, a constitutional law professor at Georgia State University, said he expects Georgia’s abortion ban would take effect “almost immediately” if Roe v. Wade is overturned. 

Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, a Republican running for re-election this year, whose office is defending the abortion ban in court, declined to comment on next steps until the Supreme Court gives a final ruling. 

“In the meantime, we will continue to vigorously defend Georgia’s Heartbeat Bill in federal court,” said Carr’s spokeswoman, Kara Richardson.

A spokesman for Georgia House Speaker David Ralston (R-Blue Ridge) declined to comment on whether state House leaders would push tougher restrictions, saying “it would be premature to comment on this matter until the Supreme Court releases an official opinion.”

Georgia Senate Majority Leader Mike Dugan’s (R-Carrollton) office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Join the Conversation

What do you want to know about the future of abortion access in Georgia? Contact reporters Beau Evans: [email protected] and Alessandro Marazzi Sassoon: [email protected].