On Nov. 15, the Superior Court of Fulton County issued an order finding that two sections of the Georgia LIFE Act (the Act) – Sections 4 and 11 – were void ab initio. Section 4 of the Act criminalized abortions after the detection of a heartbeat (typically around six weeks into the pregnancy), with exceptions only for certain medical emergencies and in cases of rape or incest where a police report was filed. Section 11 required any physician who performed an abortion after detecting a fetal heartbeat to report to the Georgia Department of Public Health the exception under Section 4 of the Act that applied to justify the otherwise illegal procedure. Spokespersons for the state reported that the state has filed a notice of appeal.
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