A Georgia judge on Monday struck down the state’s abortion law, which took effect in 2022 and effectively bans abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney wrote in his order that the law violates Georgia’s constitution, concluding that “liberty in Georgia includes in its meaning, in its protections, and in its body of rights, a woman’s power to control her body, to decide what happens to her and in it, She rejects state interference in her health choices.
When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 and ended the national right to abortion, it opened the door to state-level bans. Thirteen states now ban abortion at all stages of pregnancy, with some exceptions. Georgia was one of four states where the ban begins after approximately the first six weeks of pregnancy — often before the woman even realizes she is pregnant.
McBurney’s ruling would allow abortion during at least 20 weeks of pregnancy.
Kara Murray, a spokeswoman for Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, said he will immediately appeal the ruling to the state Supreme Court. The state Supreme Court earlier overturned a separate ruling by McBurney that struck down the law for various reasons, and Monday’s ruling could be delayed pending appeal.
“We believe Georgia’s life law is fully constitutional,” Murray said.
The ban was deeply felt in the South because many people lived hundreds of miles from states where abortion procedures could be obtained legally. If the Georgia ruling stands, it could open new possibilities for access to abortion, not only in Georgia, but also for people in neighboring states.
Georgia’s law was passed by state lawmakers and signed into law by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp in 2019, but was initially blocked from taking effect until the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, which had protected the right to abortion for nearly 50 years.
Kemp has tried in the past to mitigate her political influence by trying to focus on maternal health. The two attacked the referee.
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“Once again, the will of Georgians and their representatives has been overruled by the personal beliefs of one of the judges,” Kemp said in a statement. “Protecting the lives of the most vulnerable among us is one of our most sacred responsibilities, and Georgia will continue to be a place where we fight for the lives of the unborn.”
Carol Tobias, president of the National Right to Life Committee, called the ruling “ridiculous.”
“This judge is an activist judge who ignores the rulings of the highest courts to do what he wants,” she said in an interview. “I don’t think it will hold up.”
Monica Simpson, executive director of SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, celebrated the ruling.
“Since we’ve seen these direct attacks here in the South, in particular, on abortion access, we’ve been in a deeply defensive position for a really long time,” she said. “It seems our work was not in vain.”
While Carafem, an Atlanta abortion provider, plans to expand its services as permitted over the next few weeks, co-founder Melissa Grant said she fears a pushback.
“Employees and clients are going to live with this pending possibility of immediate change, and that can be devastating for people who are trying to plan their lives and trying to take care of their health,” Grant said.
“They will not turn away patients based on the presence or absence of fetal heart activity, so as long as we are able, we hope that we will be able to care for patients who need… To services from us.
Georgia law prohibits most abortions once there is a “detectable human heartbeat.” Heart activity can be detected by ultrasound in the fetal cells that will eventually become the heart about six weeks into pregnancy.
Before the law took effect, there were more than 4,400 abortions a month in Georgia. That has fallen by a monthly average of about 2,400 since the ban began in 2022, according to data from the Planned Parenthood Association.
The ruling means the state’s law reverts to its previous status, allowing abortion until approximately 20 weeks into pregnancy, McBurney wrote.
He wrote that the right to privacy in the Georgia Constitution includes the right to make personal health care decisions.
“When the fetus grows inside the woman and reaches the stage of vitality, and when society can assume care and responsibility for that separate life, then—and only then—can society intervene,” McBurney wrote.
The order said that the “arbitrary six-week ban” on abortions “is inconsistent with these rights and the proper balance that the continuity rule strikes between women’s rights to liberty and privacy and society’s interest in protecting and caring for unborn children.”
Clare Bartlett, executive director of the Georgia Coalition for Life, expressed confidence that the Georgia Supreme Court would again overturn McBurney’s ruling, saying he wrongly tried to “create an abortion right out of whole cloth by discovering that it exists in our Constitution.”
“It is ironic that based on his decision on Georgia’s constitutional protections against depriving a person of life, liberty, or property, which is what the argument was, he chose to focus on a woman’s right to liberty rather than a child’s right to life.” Bartlett said.
That’s partly because there is no way for citizens in Georgia to put initiatives on the ballot, and there is no referendum on abortion rights scheduled in Georgia’s elections this year. But Democrats have focused on abortion because they appeal to women and suburbanites.
On September 20, Vice President Kamala Harris visited Atlanta to describe Republican Donald Trump as a threat to women’s freedom and lives, warning that Trump would further limit abortion access if re-elected. It’s also a major issue in state legislative races as Democrats try to chip away at the Republican majority.
Harris’ visit came after ProPublica reported that two women in the state died after not getting proper medical treatment for complications from taking abortion pills to end their pregnancies. Democrats say such deaths were a predictable consequence of restrictive laws
Harris has been outspoken on abortion rights since the Supreme Court decision more than two years ago.
Associated Press writers Charlotte Cramon in Atlanta and Jeff Mulvihill in Philadelphia contributed reporting.
