Judge Strikes Down Georgia’s 6-Week Abortion Ban

Topline

A judge in Georgia ruled the state can no longer enforce its six-week abortion ban that went into effect after Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, marking the reversal of one of the more strict abortion bans in the country.

Key Facts

Fulton County Judge Robert McBurney issued the ruling—which will make abortions available until about 22 weeks of pregnancy, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported—on Monday.

In the decision, McBurney wrote a review of higher courts’ interpretations of “liberty” showed liberty should include “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 health care choices.”

McBurney also wrote that the power a woman has is “not unlimited,” however, and that “when a fetus growing inside a woman reaches viability … then—and only then—may society intervene.”

The law, commonly known as the “heartbeat law,” was signed by Gov. Brian Kemp in 2019—though didn’t go into effect until 2022—and banned abortions after about six weeks with exceptions for rape, incest, when the pregnant person’s life is at risk or if the fetus is nonviable.

Forbes has reached out to the Center for Reproductive Rights, which helped file the suit, and the state of Georgia for comment on the decision.

Key Background

The controversial law has been facing legal challenges for years. In November 2022, months after it went into effect, McBurney ruled the ban was unconstitutional when it was signed into law because Roe v. Wade had not yet been overturned, and reversed it. About a week after that decision, the Georgia Supreme Court reinstated the ban temporarily, granting the government’s request to pause McBurney’s order while they appealed it. Then, nearly a year later in October 2023, the Georgia Supreme Court upheld the abortion ban, finding it did not violate the U.S. constitution in 2019—though the court focused on the procedural question and did not consider whether abortion was constitutional, meaning the case was sent back to the lower court to answer that question. The case was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, 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.

What To Watch For

Whether the state appeals the decision and tries to take the case back to the state Supreme Court.

Further Reading