Georgia
Sen. Ossoff subcommittee to hold hearing on Georgia's 6-week abortion ban
An exam room at a Planned Parenthood clinic in 2018 in Flossmoor, Illinois. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
DECATUR, Ga. – Sen. Jon Ossoff’s Human Rights Subcommittee will hold a hearing on the health impacts of Georgia’s abortion ban on women Tuesday morning.
The subcommittee is expected to hear from OB-GYNs and other medical experts about the risks of Georgia’s restrictive 6-week abortion ban, infamously known as the heartbeat law.
The hearing begins at 9:30 a.m. ET. at Decatur City Hall, and will be streamed online.
Learn more about the professionals who will speak:
What is Georgia’s heartbeat law?
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed the “heartbeat” abortion bill, known as the Living Infants Fairness and Equality Act, into law in 2019, banning abortion after approximately six weeks.
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The Georgia law includes exceptions for rape and incest, provided a police report is filed, and allows for later abortions when the mother’s life is at risk or a serious medical condition renders a fetus unviable.
However, a federal judge blocked the law in October 2019 before it could take effect, ruling it violated the right to abortion established by the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. In June 2022, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, clearing the way for the Georgia law to take effect.
In November 2022, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney declared the ban “unequivocally unconstitutional” because it was enacted in 2019 when Roe v. Wade permitted abortions well past six weeks. However, on October 24, 2023, the Georgia Supreme Court overturned the lower court’s ruling, leaving limited abortion access unchanged for Georgia residents. Read more about Georgia’s abortion ban here.