By Dave Andrusko
Georgia’s governor and attorney general blasted Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney who for second time struck down the state’s heartbeat law.
“Once again, the will of Georgians and their representatives have been overruled by the personal beliefs of one judge,” said Governor Brian Kemp’s spokesman, Garrison Douglas. “Protecting the lives of the most vulnerable among us is one of our most sacred responsibilities, and Georgia will continue to be a place where we fight for the lives of the unborn.”
Kara Murray, a spokesperson for state Attorney General Christopher Carr, said, “We believe Georgia’s LIFE Act is fully constitutional, and we will immediately appeal the lower court’s decision.”
The law protects preborn children after a fetal heartbeat can be detected, approximately at 6 weeks. There are exceptions for rape, incest, and to save the life of the mother.
But Judge McBurney 26-page decision means that the state must now allow abortions up to 22 weeks of pregnancy. His decision was filled with hyperbole and pro-abortion talking point, including a reference to The Handmaid’s Tale.
“For these women, the liberty of privacy means that they alone should choose whether they serve as human incubators for the five months leading up to viability,” he wrote just warming up. “It is not for a legislator, a judge, or a Commander from The Handmaid’s Tale to tell these women what to do with their bodies during this period when the fetus cannot survive outside the womb any more so than society could — or should — force them to serve as a human tissue bank or to give up a kidney for the benefit of another.”
Later he added, “When a fetus growing inside a woman reaches viability, when society can assume care and responsibility for that separate life, then − and only then − may society intervene.”
Background
The law was first passed in 2019 but went into effect in June 2022 when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. In November 2022, Judge McBurney’s decision barred state officials from enforcing the “Living Infants Fairness and Equality Act” [LIFE Act]. A year ago the Georgia Supreme Court overturned McBurney 6-1.
Edward Whelan, writing at National Review Online picks up the narrative from there.
In a follow-on ruling today (in Sistersong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective v. Georgia), McBurney continues his wild rampage. In an opinion replete with screeching rhetoric (yes, even The Handmaid’s Tale makes an appearance), McBurney holds that the Georgia heartbeat law violates the rights to privacy and to equal protection under the state. …
There’s so much more wild stuff in McBurney’s opinion: The law’s exception for medical emergencies, he holds, violates equal protection by not applying to diagnoses of mental or emotional conditions. Laws against abortion have “an uncomfortable and usually unspoken subtext of involuntary servitude.” Georgia’s heartbeat law, he suggests, could also be a “sweeping bill of attainder.”
The Georgia Life Alliance, NRL’s state affiliate, vowed to persevere.
After the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, the Pro-Abortion industry has been doing their very best to have Georgia’s LIFE Act nullified. They have been coming from every angle to reinstate and expand abortion to never before seen levels. They must be stopped and Georgia Life Alliance is the Pro-Life organization to do it. From working tirelessly to pass the LIFE Act to fighting to restrict mail-in and over-the-counter abortion pills, GLA has been and will continue to be at the forefront of the Pro-Life movement.
