As the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to hear arguments from anti-abortion activists who say the abortion pill should be pulled from the shelf, Republican leaders in Georgia say they are waiting to see how things play out in the courts.
Still, abortion rights advocates and most Democrats say they are still bracing for bills during the upcoming session of the General Assembly that would limit the procedure, knowing Republican lawmakers try to use such measures to fend off potential primary challenges in an election year.
Shortly after the 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that guaranteed a right to abortion, Georgia’s law took effect restricting the procedure in most cases once a doctor can detect fetal cardiac activity, typically about six weeks into a pregnancy and before many know they are pregnant.
Abortion rights activists and providers challenged the law in state court, arguing that the right to privacy in Georgia’s Constitution is more expansive than in the U.S. Constitution and claiming that since the law was approved in 2019, when Roe v. Wade was still the law of the land, it was passed illegally.
The Georgia Supreme Court ruled against the abortion providers in the fall, sending the case back to Fulton County Superior Court, where a judge will rule on the constitutionality of the law. It’s unclear when that judge will make a decision.
“We’re still waiting for the courts to rule, so I think we’re still in the same posture we were a year ago,” said state Senate Majority Leader Steve Gooch, R-Dahlonega. “We want to let the courts do its work and we’ll respond accordingly.”
Some anti-abortion activists, such as those with Georgia Right to Life, said they will continue to push to close what it calls “loopholes” in Georgia’s law that allow later abortions in some instances.
Georgia’s law, in cases of rape or incest, allows abortions up until 22 weeks of pregnancy. Victims would have to have reported the incident of rape or incest to the police to qualify for a later abortion. Abortions past 22 weeks could also be performed if the fetus has congenital or chromosomal defects and would not survive.
Less than 1% of the 25,000 abortions performed in Georgia since the law took effect in August 2022 were done under the exceptions outlined in state law.
State Department of Public Health data has shown that Georgia’s abortion law caused the number of procedures performed in the state to drop by nearly half compared with before the law took effect — from about 4,000 each month to about 2,200.
With the overturning of Roe v. Wade, some anti-abortion advocates in Georgia — and across the country — say there’s more work to be done, setting their sights on one of the two pills used to have an abortion.
Mifepristone is one of two drugs used in medication abortions, which account for more than half of all abortions in the United States. More than 5 million people have used it since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved it in 2000.
The FDA in 2021 issued guidance that allowed abortion medication to be prescribed through a telehealth visit and sent through the mail.
Georgia providers say they don’t use telehealth for abortion visits. Georgia’s abortion laws also require an ultrasound to determine how far along a pregnancy is before an abortion — medical or surgical — can be performed, which requires an in-person visit.
The two-pill combination has become the most-used method for those seeking an abortion in Georgia. The pills are approved for use up to about 10 weeks, though very few abortions are performed in Georgia after about five weeks of pregnancy due to the state’s law.
The U.S. Supreme Court will also weigh in on the use of mifepristone this year after an appellate court barred access to the drug through the mail and imposed other restrictions, including shortening the period the medication can be used in pregnancy to seven weeks.
For abortion rights advocates, this session of the General Assembly will mostly be about playing defense. One bill they said they expect lawmakers to file this year would ban the distribution of abortion pills through the mail, similar to one that was filed in 2022. The effort to stop pills from being sent through the mail is also being pursued in several other Republican-run states.
The Senate approved a bill in 2022 that would require pregnant women to see a doctor in person before being able to obtain mifepristone, an abortion pill, and ban the medication from being sent through the mail. A doctor would also have to perform an ultrasound before the drugs could be prescribed and schedule a follow-up visit. The bill failed in the House.
Anti-abortion advocates say they hope to resurrect the effort this session.
“Our focus, as always, is on helping women and their babies and supporting them with every wraparound service we can,” said Claire Bartlett, executive director of the anti-abortion group Georgia Life Alliance.
While Georgia abortion providers don’t send the pills through the mail, medical professionals outside of the state would not be bound by the laws here.
And last year the Justice Department issued a legal opinion that allows the U.S. Postal Service to deliver abortion pills to people even in states that have banned or restricted the procedure. Federal law allows the mailing of the pills because the sender cannot know for sure whether the recipient would use them illegally.
