A judge determining whether to strike down Georgia’s abortion limits heard conflicting views this past week about how such restrictions affect doctors who care for pregnant women.
Georgia’s law bans abortions as early as six weeks into pregnancy, though it allows for later abortions to prevent a woman’s death or “the substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function.”
That exception is unclear and has “hand-tied” doctors in the state, who are struggling to determine what conditions meet the standard and when, said Martina Badell, a doctor who specializes in maternal and fetal health at Emory University School of Medicine.
Georgia’s law bans most abortions once a “detectable human heartbeat” is present. Cardiac activity can be detected by ultrasound in cells within an embryo that will eventually become the heart as early as six weeks into a pregnancy. That means most abortions in Georgia are effectively banned at a point before many women know they are pregnant.
The law also includes exceptions for rape and incest, as long as a police report is filed.
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