On Monday, the Georgia Supreme Court reinstated the state’s six-week abortion ban while it reviews an appeal from a lower court ruling that had struck down the law. The law had went into effect ater the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, with Georgia prohibiting most abortions once cardiac activity is detected (typically around six weeks).
The six-week ban will remain in place while Georgia’s highest court considers the state’s appeal; meaning, abortions will not be allowed in Georgia beyond six weeks of pregnancy. However, Georgia’s Supreme Court’s decision still left in place the lower court’s ruling blocking a separate provision of the law that had given state prosecutors broad access to the medical records of abortion patients without due process protections.
The new six-week abortion ban comes after the judge’s ruling last week that the six-week ban is unconstitutional and abortions would be permitted past six weeks. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney wrote in his order that while “the State’s interest in protecting ‘unborn’ life is compelling, until that life can be sustained by the State … the balance of rights favors the woman … our higher courts’ interpretations of ‘liberty’ demonstrates that liberty in Georgia includes in its meaning, in its protections, and in its bundle of rights the power of a woman to control her own body, to decide what happens to it and in it, and to reject state interference with her healthcare choices. That power is not, however, unlimited When a fetus growing inside a woman reaches viability, when society can assume care and responsibility for that separate life, then — and only then — may society intervene.”
The state’s near-total abortion ban, known as the LIFE Act, was signed by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp in 2019 but didn’t take effect until July 2022. Kemp issued a statement following McBurney’s ruling, saying, “Once again, the will of Georgians and their representatives has been overruled by the personal beliefs of one judge. 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.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Monday after the Georgia Supreme Court issued the stay: “We’re going to continue to call out these extreme agendas that we’re seeing from the other side, from Republicans. It is important to say how dangerous this is. And how this is a freedom that has been taken away from women.”
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