Foes ask judge to halt Georgia abortion law

ATLANTA—Opponents of a Georgia law that bans most abortions on Tuesday asked a judge to keep it from taking effect while their legal challenge plays out.

The law is set to become enforceable Jan. 1. Lawyers with the American Civil Liberties Union, Planned Parenthood and the Center for Reproductive Rights sued on behalf of Georgia advocacy groups and abortion providers last month to challenge the measure.

A spokeswoman for the state attorney general’s office, which is defending the law, declined to comment on Tuesday’s filing, citing the pending litigation. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, acknowledged when he signed the law in May that it would likely face legal challenges but said the state wouldn’t back down.

The so-called heartbeat law bans abortion once a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which can occur as early as six weeks, before many women know they’re pregnant. It’s one of a spate of laws passed recently by Republican-controlled legislatures in an attack on the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion nationwide.

The Georgia legislation makes exceptions in the case of rape and incest, if the woman files a police report first. It also allows for abortions when the life of the woman is at risk or when a fetus is determined not to be viable because of a serious medical condition.

Additionally, it declares an embryo or fetus a “natural person” once cardiac activity can be detected, saying that is the point where “the full value of a child begins.”

The court filing Tuesday argues that viability, or the likelihood that a fetus can survive outside the womb, doesn’t occur until several months into a pregnancy.