Gov. Brian Kemp on Tuesday morning put his signature to Georgia legislation banning abortions at six weeks of pregnancy. Kemp, joined by supporters, signed House Bill 481 at 10 a.m. in the his ceremonial office.

Before the ink was dry, the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia was on the street outside the Capitol promising an immediate legal challenge.

“The governor has signed an unconstitutional abortion ban, a Frankenstein bill—a bill cobbled together with disparate parts derived from ideology, not science. A bill that explicitly undermines women's healthcare in Georgia,” ACLU Georgia Executive Director Andrea Young said in a news release. “Georgia can't afford to go backward on women's health and rights. The ACLU will act to block this assault on women's health, rights, and self-determination.”

“Women are leaders in this state, a state that for 50 years has respected a woman's right to make her own reproductive health decisions. Today's women can only thrive in a state that protects their most basic rights—the right to choose when and whether to start or expand a family. Georgia can't afford to go backwards on women's health and rights,” Young said. “We will act to block this assault on women's health, rights, and self-determination.”

The ACLU said the group tried to secure permission to hold a news conference inside the Capitol but was unsuccessful. So the state's soon-to-be legal opponents spoke outside on Washington Street.

ACLU Georgia Legal Director Sean Young had already told the Daily Report that his office will seek a permanent injunction with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia to stop the law from being enforced well before the Jan. 1 effective date. “This is a straightforward legal issue,” Young said at the time, but added, “As a lawyer, I would never predict what a court will do.”

Supporters of the bill are counting on that legal challenge to achieve their stated goal of challenging U.S. Supreme Court precedent.

As Kemp signed the bill Tuesday, the Family Policy Alliance of Georgia was with him and quickly sent out a news release praising him for keeping his campaign promise to “sign the most pro-life legislation in the nation.”

In that regard, Kemp is actually in the running with leaders from several other states that have passed similar laws, also backed by the Colorado-based Family Policy Alliance. The group noted that its Georgia president, Cole Muzio, served on Kemp's transition team.

“Georgia values life, and Governor Kemp affirmed that truth with his signature today,” Muzio said in a news release. “While many have attempted to use this issue to divide us, it is my great hope that we can move forward united around that idea that all Georgians matter and are worth protecting. I invite my fellow Georgians to look at the science and to examine the common sense reality that preborn children with beating hearts have value. There should be nothing that bridges divides and heals wounds to a greater degree than the unifying goal of cherishing life—all life—across our state.”

Muzio said the “work is not done” and acknowledged the political nature of the battle. “Money will certainly pour in from places like San Francisco and New York to attack those who stood for life over the financially motivated abortion industry, which profits from the death of the innocent,” Muzio said. “We look forward to partnering with Georgians across our state to stand for Life at the ballot box in 2020 and beyond with the continued pursuit of a Georgia where life is cherished.”

House Bill 481 bans abortion at six weeks of pregnancy—that time frame, it has been noted, means four weeks from conception, or two weeks after a missed period, which could be before a woman knows she's pregnant.

The law would make abortion after six weeks a crime for a doctor or a pregnant woman—unless she can provide a police report of rape, or a medical diagnosis showing her life is threatened or the fetus can't survive.

The task of defending the law will fall to Attorney General Chris Carr's office. Through a deputy, Carr previously said it would be inappropriate for him to offer an opinion or a comment on its constitutionality.

Proponents call the new law a “heartbeat bill” because it's timed around the first signs of an embryonic pulse. Opponents say even the name is wrong because the timing comes before the formation of a heart, when pulsing can be heard only with a vaginal ultrasound.

Until now, abortion restrictions upheld by the courts have been based on whether a fetus could survive outside a uterus, Young noted. The viable gestational age has moved to earlier during pregnancy in recent years with advances in medical care, but both sides of the debate put it well beyond 20 weeks.

Georgia law already bans abortion after 20 weeks.

Legislators in Georgia and other states speaking in support of six-week bans have expressed the hope that their bill could be the one that leads the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the landmark 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade, which ruled that unduly restrictive abortion regulation is unconstitutional.