First lawsuit against state abortion ban begins in Georgia

• Abortion ban challenger calls law a ‘tremendous intrusion’
• The state tells the judge nothing in the constitution, “not even references to an abortion right”
• There are more than a dozen legal actions against new abortion bans

(Reuters) – A trial by Planned Parenthood and other abortion rights groups against Georgia’s ban on most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy began on Monday.

The trial without a jury before Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney in Atlanta began with arguments by the groups over the state’s motion to dismiss the case, which the judge said he would not rule on until at least November.

The plaintiffs, who also include the Sistersong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective and the Center for Reproductive Rights, argue that the state law violates Georgians’ fundamental rights to liberty and privacy under the state constitution, which Attorney General Stephen Petrany vigorously denied .

“Nothing even suggests abortion rights in the Georgia constitution,” he told McBurney. Abortion is not a private matter for the mother, since it also affects the fetus.

“These are unborn children that the state wants to protect,” he said.

Julia Kaye of the American Civil Liberties Union, who sided with the challengers, countered that the desire to protect fetuses “does not give the state carte blanche to impose this enormous intrusion on the lives, bodies, and health of Georgians.”

Kaye also argued that the 2019 ban was “invalid ab initio” or void once the law was passed because it was the US Supreme Court’s landmark 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade violated recognized abortion rights. She said the Supreme Court’s June ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, which overturned that right, could not simply reinstate an invalid law and that lawmakers would have to re-enact it if that was the will of the people.

The 2019 ban had been blocked because of Roe, but the state Supreme Court allowed it to go into effect in July. It bans abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected, usually at around six weeks, with exceptions to save the mother’s life and in cases of rape that are reported to police.

Abortion rights advocates have filed more than a dozen legal actions against new abortion bans enacted by Republican-led states across the country since Dobbs, with mixed results so far. This week’s trial in Georgia is the first full trial in such a case and is expected to last two days.

The case is Sistersong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective v. State of Georgia, Superior Court of Fulton County, No. 2022CV367796.

For plaintiffs: Julia Stone of Caplan Cobb; Julia Kaye from the ACLU; and Tiana Mykkeltvedt of Bondurant Mixson & Elmore

For the State: Attorney General Stephen Petrany

Continue reading:

Court lets Georgia’s “heartbeat” abortion ban go into effect

The US Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade and ends constitutional abortion rights

Our standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Brendan Pierson

Thomson Reuters

Brendan Pierson covers product liability litigation and all aspects of healthcare law. He can be reached at brendan.pierson@thomsonreuters.com.