Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney said the law was invalid at the time it was passed in 2019 based on the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision, which established a federal right to abortion in 1973. McBurney said the state would have to pass the law again now that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe for the ban to stand. The 2019 law was “manifestly unconstitutional when drafted, passed and enacted,” McBurney wrote in his opinion. The law prohibited abortion after fetal heart activity was detected, usually around six weeks of pregnancy and often before a woman knew she was pregnant. He made exceptions for abortions to save the life of the mother and for rape reported to the police. It had been blocked under Roe, but went into effect in July after the US Supreme Court’s ruling in June gave states the power to restrict abortions to any extent. By lifting its six-week ban, Georgia now allows abortion up to 22 weeks, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive rights research group. “After a long road, we are finally able to celebrate the end of an extreme abortion ban in our state,” said Monica Simpson, executive director of the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, the lead plaintiff in the case. A spokesman for Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, said the state has “already filed an appeal” Tuesday afternoon and will “continue to fight for the lives of Georgia’s unborn children.” McBurney did not rule on whether the law violated the Georgia Constitution, leaving open the possibility that state lawmakers could pass similar legislation in the future. About a dozen states have imposed near-total abortion bans since the end of Roe v. Wade, many such as Georgia in the southeastern region of the United States. Abortion rights advocates had argued before the judge in October that the law violated Georgians’ fundamental rights to liberty and privacy under the state constitution and endangered women’s health. Reporting by Gabriella Borter in Washington and Brendan Pierson in New York. Editing by Colleen Jenkins, Bill Berkrot and David Gregorio Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. Brendan Pearson Thomson Reuters Brendan Pierson reports on product liability lawsuits and all areas of healthcare law. He can be reached at [email protected]
