"Abortion being outlawed means that our work as the Church and our work as [God's] people and his hands and feet is just the beginning. We have to be there for these moms who are still going to be in crisis," Elizabeth Edmonds, leadership director at Georgia Life Alliance, tells AFN.
When something such as a ban on abortion after a baby's heartbeat has been detected, Edmonds says some women still that feel as though abortion is the only option – and that feeling, she shares, doesn't go away just because she can't get an abortion in her state.
"So, we need to stand up and stand in the gap as the Church and give her those resources that she needs, give her the support she needs to step into motherhood with confidence and joy instead of uncertainty and crisis," the pro-life spokeswoman adds.
On the day before Thanksgiving, the Georgia Supreme Court reinstated the state's ban on abortions after a heartbeat is detected. That is usually around six weeks of pregnancy.
"Our attorney general filed an appeal to the [Georgia] Supreme Court. He also filed for the Supreme Court, while they are deciding on the appeal and the merits of it, [to] issue a stay of the decision from the lower court," says Edmonds.
That lower-court decision, she explains, said the portions of the heartbeat bill that restricted abortions upon detection of a heartbeat and the section requiring enhanced reporting were no longer valid.
"So, what the Georgia Supreme Court did [last week] was grant the attorney general's request for them to stay that lower court's decision. [That means] the heartbeat bill is in effect while the appeal will be going on," she concludes.
