Court action on Texas anti-abortion law turns spotlight on Georgia

Georgia advocates on both sides of the issue of abortion responded strongly after the U.S. Supreme Court this past week allowed a restrictive law from Texas to take effect.

Those who oppose abortion say the high court’s decision signals that it’s ready to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that established a constitutional, nationwide right to abortion.

Supporters of abortion rights vowed to keep fighting.

The Texas law is similar to a statute the Georgia General Assembly adopted in 2019 that will get a hearing later this month in a federal appellate court after a U.S. district judge struck it down last year.

Both would ban most abortions once fetal cardiac activity can be detected — usually about six weeks into a pregnancy and before many women know they’re pregnant.

Georgia’s law also includes what many supporters call “personhood” language, which would extend legal rights to fertilized eggs.

The Texas law allows private citizens to sue anyone involved in facilitating abortions. That would include, for example, anyone who drives a woman to a clinic in Texas to get an abortion. Anyone who successfully sues another person in that situation would be entitled to at least $10,000.

The high court’s decision not to intervene in the Texas case follows an announcement earlier this year that it will consider ruling on a restrictive anti-abortion law out of Mississippi, blocked by lower courts, that would outlaw most abortions once a woman reaches 15 weeks of pregnancy.

Joshua Edmonds, executive director of the anti-abortion Georgia Life Alliance, said the court’s action on the Texas law indicates the “inevitable outcome” of the cases in Georgia and Mississippi.

Staci Fox, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Southeast Advocates, called the Supreme Court “irresponsible” for not acting before Texas’ law took effect. (A day later, justices voted 5-4 not to block the law.)

The case challenging the Georgia law will be heard in a federal appeals court on Sept. 24.