Trump, Obama Judges Issue Similar Rulings Against ‘Fetal Heartbeat’ Abortion Bans in Two Separate States – By Aaron Keller (Law and Crime) / July 13 2020
Two federal judges on Monday blocked, to varying legal degrees, two so-called “fetal heartbeat” abortion bans in two separate states.
A temporary restraining order against Tennessee officials was issued by Judge William L. Campbell, Jr., a Donald Trump appointee, less than an hour after Gov. Bill Lee (R-Tenn.) signed the measure into law. The TRO in Tennessee expires in two weeks pending a hearing for preliminary injunction. A permanent injunction against a similar abortion ban in the State of Georgia was issued Monday by federal judge Steve C. Jones, a Barack Obama appointee. It prevents Georgia officials from ever enforcing their strict abortion law which was signed into law last year.
The Georgia case, styled as SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective v. Kemp, centered around Georgia House Bill 481, officially known as the “Living Infants Fairness and Equality (LIFE) Act.” The bill, which Republican Gov. Brian Kemp applauded, cited the Declaration of Independence and the Fourteenth Amendment as the underpinnings of a state policy “to recognize unborn children as natural persons.” It provided legal protection to any “unborn child with a detectable human heartbeat” and banned abortions at that point in the gestation process, which generally occurs around six weeks. (The state said fetal heartbeats might become detectable a few days earlier; the plaintiffs said they might become detectable shortly after six weeks.)
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