Georgia’s abortion ban lifted

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Top line

A Georgia judge has ruled that the state can no longer enforce its six-week abortion ban that took effect after the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, marking the reversal of one of the nation’s strictest abortion bans.

Key facts

Fulton County Judge Robert McBurney issued the ruling Monday that will make abortion possible up to about 22 weeks of pregnancy, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

In the decision, McBurney wrote a review of higher courts’ interpretations of “liberty,” showing that liberty should include “a woman’s power to control her own body, to decide what happens to her, and to what is there, and to reject the interference of the State in his body. choices in health care.

McBurney also wrote that a woman’s power is, however, “not unlimited” and that “when a fetus growing inside a woman achieves viability… then – and only then – can society to intervene “.

The law, commonly known as the “heartbeat law,” was signed by Gov. Brian Kemp in 2019 — but didn’t take effect until 2022 — and bans abortions after about six weeks, with exceptions for rape, incest, when the pregnant person is pregnant. life is in danger or the fetus is not viable.

Forbes reached out to the Center for Reproductive Rights, which helped file the lawsuit, as well as the state of Georgia for comment on the decision.

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Key context

The controversial law has been the subject of legal challenges for years. In November 2022, months after it took effect, McBurney ruled that the ban was unconstitutional when it was enacted because Roe v. Wade had not yet been overturned, and struck it down. About a week after that ruling, the Georgia Supreme Court temporarily reinstated the ban, granting the government’s request to stay McBurney’s order while he appealed. Then, almost a year later, in October 2023, the Georgia Supreme Court upheld the abortion ban, finding that it did not violate the 2019 U.S. Constitution – although the court focused on the procedural question and did not consider whether abortion was constitutional, which means that it is the case. was remanded to the lower court to answer this question. The case was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Georgia, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the Center for Reproductive Rights and Georgia-based law firms on behalf of SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective and other women’s health care providers.

To watch

Is the state appealing the decision and attempting to take the case to the state Supreme Court?

Further reading

ForbesJudge overturns Georgia’s six-week abortion banBy Sarah Dorn