Georgia Abortion Law: Six-Week Cutoff, Exceptions, and Penalties

Georgia abortion law bans the procedure once a physician can detect embryonic cardiac activity, which usually occurs around six weeks of pregnancy. The rule comes from the LIFE Act (Living Infants Fairness and Equality Act), originally House Bill 481, which took effect in 2020 and was reinstated by the Georgia Supreme Court in October 2024. Abortion is legal before a heartbeat is detected, and narrow exceptions exist after that point for rape or incest, medical emergencies, and pregnancies that are medically futile. Providers who violate the law face felony charges carrying one to ten years in prison.

The Six-Week Cutoff

Before performing any abortion, a physician must check for cardiac activity by ultrasound. If a heartbeat is detected, the procedure cannot go forward unless one of the statutory exceptions applies.¹ Cardiac activity is typically detectable around six weeks of gestation, which is measured from the first day of the last menstrual period rather than from conception. Many people learn they are pregnant and discover they have already passed the legal cutoff at roughly the same time.

The heartbeat restriction applies equally to medication and surgical abortion. There is no separate, longer window for pills.

Exceptions After a Heartbeat Is Detected

Three exceptions allow an abortion once cardiac activity is present. Each carries its own conditions and documentation requirements.

Rape or Incest

A patient whose pregnancy resulted from rape or incest may obtain an abortion up to 20 weeks gestational age, but only if an official police report has been filed alleging the crime.² The police report is a precondition; without it, the exception does not apply. The 20-week outer limit is firm regardless of when the report is filed.

Medical Emergency

A physician may perform an abortion at any gestational age when the pregnancy threatens the patient’s life or risks substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function. The statute defines “medical emergency” around that standard and explicitly excludes mental and emotional health conditions from the exception. It also states the exception does not apply if the risk of harm comes from the patient’s own stated intention to engage in self-harm.²

Physicians must make a judgment call about whether a specific condition meets the “substantial and irreversible” threshold, knowing that a wrong call could mean criminal prosecution. Some providers have described delaying care while a patient’s condition worsens to the point where it clearly meets the statutory standard.

Medically Futile Pregnancy

An abortion is permitted when a physician determines, in reasonable medical judgment, that the pregnancy is medically futile. The law defines this as a profound and irremediable congenital or chromosomal anomaly that is incompatible with sustaining life after birth.² Conditions like anencephaly clearly qualify. Many severe fetal anomalies that involve significant suffering and very short life expectancy do not qualify unless the condition is definitively incompatible with any sustained life after birth. The physician must document the diagnosis thoroughly in the patient’s medical records.

What a Patient Must Go Through Before an Abortion

Only licensed physicians may perform abortions in Georgia. Nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and other advanced practice providers cannot.¹ Before the procedure, the physician must perform an ultrasound, tell the patient whether a heartbeat was detected and what the estimated gestational age is, and offer the patient the chance to view the image and hear the heartbeat. The patient can decline the viewing, but the offer is legally required.³

At least 24 hours before the abortion, the patient must receive specific counseling from the physician, a qualified agent of the physician, or a referring physician. The counseling can happen in person or by phone and must cover:⁴

The medical risks of the specific abortion method and the medical risks of carrying the pregnancy to term
The probable gestational age of the pregnancy and whether a detectable heartbeat is present
Information about prenatal care, childbirth coverage, and newborn care, plus the right to review state-prepared materials describing fetal development at two-week intervals⁵

The 24-hour waiting period cannot be waived for personal circumstances, though a medical emergency overrides it. Because Georgia has relatively few abortion facilities and many are concentrated in the Atlanta metro area, the waiting period effectively requires two trips for patients in rural parts of the state.

Medication Abortion

Medication abortion carries additional in-person requirements. The physician must examine the patient in person and perform an ultrasound before prescribing abortion medication. During that visit, the physician must independently confirm the pregnancy exists, determine its gestational age and location, check the patient’s blood type and offer treatment if she is Rh negative, and obtain signed informed consent.⁶

Sending abortion medication by mail, courier, or delivery service is illegal in Georgia unless the prescription strictly complies with the in-person examination requirements.⁶ The telehealth-only model used in some other states, where patients receive pills by mail after a video consultation, is not available in Georgia.

Rules for Minors

An unemancipated minor may consent to her own abortion in Georgia, but at least one parent or legal guardian must be notified at least 24 hours in advance. This notification is separate from the general 24-hour informed consent waiting period; both apply. Only a medical emergency eliminates the parental notification requirement.

A minor who does not want a parent or guardian notified, or whose parent or guardian cannot be located, can petition any juvenile court in the state for a judicial bypass. The minor can file directly or through a “next friend,” and the court must help her prepare the paperwork. The petition can be filed in any county. An abortion cannot proceed until either parental notification is satisfied or the court grants a waiver.⁷

Who Can Be Charged

Georgia’s criminal abortion statute is written to target the person who performs the procedure. It describes the offense as administering drugs or using instruments “upon any woman” to produce an abortion, language directed at providers rather than patients.⁸

The statute does not contain an explicit blanket immunity for pregnant women, and it lists “affirmative defenses” available to a woman who sought an abortion, including that she reasonably believed the abortion was the only way to prevent a medical emergency.² The presence of affirmative defenses implies prosecution of a pregnant woman is at least theoretically possible, because a defense is only needed if charges can be brought. At least one Georgia woman has faced criminal charges related to self-managed abortion.

On the civil side, a patient who receives an abortion performed in violation of the statute can sue the person who performed it and recover all damages available under Georgia tort law.² That right belongs to the patient. Georgia did not adopt the private citizen bounty enforcement seen in some other states’ abortion laws.

Penalties for Providers

Criminal abortion is a felony. A conviction carries a mandatory minimum of one year in prison and a maximum of ten years.⁸ There is no probation-only outcome. The sentence range applies to anyone who performs or helps perform a criminal abortion, not just the physician.

Beyond prison time, the Georgia Composite Medical Board can impose professional discipline on any licensed physician found to have performed, procured, or assisted in a criminal abortion. Sanctions include indefinite suspension or outright revocation of the medical license.⁹ Clinics that knowingly allow unlawful procedures risk losing their operating licenses as well.

Enforcement Varies by County

Local district attorneys prosecute criminal violations, and health records related to an abortion must be made available to the district attorney of the circuit where the abortion occurred or where the patient lives.² The Georgia Composite Medical Board handles the professional side, investigating complaints from patients, colleagues, or state officials and conducting administrative hearings.¹⁰

Enforcement is uneven across the state. District attorneys have broad prosecutorial discretion, and several elected DAs in Georgia have publicly stated they will not use their offices to prosecute abortion-related cases. Others have signaled they will enforce the law aggressively. The likelihood of criminal prosecution depends in part on which judicial circuit the procedure occurred in.

1
Justia. Georgia Code 31-9B-2 – Requirement to Determine Presence of Detectable Human Heartbeat of Unborn Child
2
Justia. Georgia Code 16-12-141 – Restrictions on the Performance of Abortions, Availability of Records, Civil Cause of Action, Affirmative Defenses
3
Justia. Georgia Code 31-9A-3 – Voluntary and Informed Consent to Abortion, Availability of Ultrasound
4
Georgia General Assembly. House Bill 481 (As Passed House and Senate) – Section 7
5
Georgia Department of Public Health. Abortion – A Womans Right to Know
6
Georgia General Assembly. Women’s Health and Safety Act (Substitute to SB 456)
7
Justia. Georgia Code 15-11-682 – Parental Notification of Abortion, Hearing, Venue
8
Justia. Georgia Code 16-12-140 – Criminal Abortion
9
Justia. Georgia Code 43-34-8 – Authority to Refuse to Grant or to Discipline License, Certificate, or Permit
10
Georgia General Assembly. Senate Bill 37