Judge suspends Georgia abortion ban, allows procedure to resume after 6 weeks

A Georgia judge on Monday struck down the state’s abortion law, which took effect in 2022 and effectively bans abortions beyond about six weeks of pregnancy in the neighboring state of Florida to the north.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney wrote in his order that the law violates the Georgia Constitution, finding that “liberty in Georgia includes in its meaning, in its protections and in its body of rights the power of a woman to control her own body, decide what happens to her and what is in it, and reject state interference in her health care choices.

When the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 and ended the nation’s right to abortion, it opened the door to state bans. Thirteen states, including Florida, now ban abortion at all stages of pregnancy, with few exceptions.

Like Florida, Georgia is one of four countries where bans begin after about the first six weeks of pregnancy, often before women realize they are pregnant.

McBurney’s decision would allow abortions up to at least 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Kara Murray, a spokeswoman for Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, said he would immediately appeal to the state Supreme Court. The state’s high court previously overturned a separate decision by McBurney that struck down the law on different grounds and could put Monday’s decision on hold pending an appeal.

“We believe Georgia’s life law is entirely constitutional,” Murray said.

The bans were deeply felt in the South because many people live hundreds of miles from states where abortion procedures can be obtained legally. If the Georgia ruling stands, it could open new avenues for accessing abortion not only in Georgia, but also for people in neighboring states.

The Georgia law was passed by state lawmakers and signed by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp in 2019, but it was initially blocked from taking effect until the Supreme Court overturned R.oe against Wade, which had protected the right to abortion for nearly 50 years.

Kemp has tried in the past to soften his political impact by trying to focus on mothers’ health. On Monday, he attacked the decision.

“Once again, the will of Georgians and their representatives has been overridden by the personal beliefs of a judge,” 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 decision “ridiculous.”

“This judge is an activist judge who ignores higher court rulings to do what he wants,” she said in an interview. “And I don’t think it’s going to hold.”

Monica Simpson, executive director of the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, celebrated the ruling.

“Since we have seen these direct attacks here in the South, particularly on abortion access, we have remained in a deep defensive position for a very long time,” she said. “I feel like our work was not in vain.”

As Carafem, an abortion provider in Atlanta, plans to expand its services as permitted in the coming weeks, co-founder Melissa Grant said she fears a reversal.

“Staff and clients will live with this possibility looming over immediate change, and it can be devastating for people trying to plan their lives and take care of their health,” Grant said.

Kwajelyn Jackson, executive director of the Feminist Women’s Health Center, another Atlanta abortion provider, said it “will not turn away patients based on the presence or absence of fetal heart activity, and also As long as we can, we hope that we will be able to care for the patients who need our services.

Georgia law banned most abortions as long as a “detectable human heartbeat” was present. Cardiac activity can be detected by ultrasound in the cells of an embryo that will eventually become the heart about six weeks into pregnancy.

Before the law took effect, more than 4,400 abortions occurred each month in Georgia. That figure has declined by a monthly average of about 2,400 since the ban began in 2022, according to data from the Society of Family Planning.

The ruling means state law reverts to its previous status, allowing abortions up to about 20 weeks of pregnancy, McBurney wrote.

The right to privacy enshrined in the Georgia Constitution includes the right to make personal health care decisions, he wrote.

“When the fetus growing inside a woman reaches viability, when society can assume the care and responsibility for this separate life, then – and only then – can society intervene,” McBurney wrote.

An “arbitrary six-week ban” on abortion “is inconsistent with these rights and with the fair balance that a viability rule strikes between a woman’s rights to liberty and privacy and the interests of society to protect and care for unborn children,” the order states.

Claire Bartlett, executive director of the Georgia Life Alliance, said she is confident the Georgia Supreme Court will overturn McBurney again, saying he wrongly attempted “to create a right to abortion from scratch by believing that ‘it resides in our constitution’.

“It is simply ironic that, based on his ruling on Georgia’s constitutional protection against a person deprived of life, liberty or property, which was the main argument, he chose to focus on the woman’s right to liberty rather than the child’s right to life. ” Bartlett said.

Floridians will vote in November on a proposed amendment that would enshrine the right to abortion in the state constitution.

Partly because Georgia has no way for citizens to put initiatives on the ballot, no such referendum is planned this year. But Democrats have focused on abortion because it appeals to women and suburbanites.