The Supreme Court of Georgia temporarily re-instated an abortion ban while it considers whether the abortion law is unconstitutional.

The new law, which took effect at 5 PM October 7, bans abortion following the sixth week of pregnancy when a fetus has a detectable heartbeat. The law, known as HB 481, or the Georgia LIFE (Living Infants Fairness and Equality) Act, was originally passed in 2019 and took effect after Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022.

The Fulton County Superior Court heard the case Sistersong v. State of Georgia, in which the plaintiffs, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), argued the LIFE Act is unconstitutional because it infringes upon pregnant persons’ right to “liberty, privacy, and equal protection” under the Georgia state constitution.

The state argued that the right to privacy “never included the right to have an abortion” and that the right to terminate a pregnancy interferes with the rights of another (the fetus), so the right to privacy “must yield.”

The lower court found that the right to privacy includes the right to make individual healthcare decisions, which includes abortions. The court also found that the state’s characterization of the fetus’s life versus the liberty of a woman is incorrect because “her fetus cannot enjoy any legislatively bestowed right to life independent of the woman carrying it.”

The plaintiffs also argued that the LIFE Act separates pregnant women into two classes: those who choose to move forward with their pregnancy and those who choose to abort their pregnancy. Here, the court found that the state’s interest in protecting fetal life is not narrowly tailored enough to justify the intrusion into the healthcare decisions of those who choose to abort their pregnancy.

The Georgia Supreme Court will now consider the constitutionality of the Georgia LIFE Act.