Judge Tosses Out Georgia’s 6-Week Abortion Ban

Topline

A judge reversed Georgia’s ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy Tuesday, ruling it was unconstitutional when it was signed into law in 2019, a blow to one GOP-led state’s push to ban abortion after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade.

Key Facts

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ruled that the ban on abortions after a doctor can detect cardiac activity violated the U.S. Constitution and Roe v. Wade—the Supreme Court’s 1973 decision that made abortion a constitutional right—because Roe had yet to be overturned when Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) signed the ban into law in 2019.

The state law went into effect in July, just three weeks after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and gave states the power to ban abortion after almost 50 years.

A group of doctors and advocacy groups filed a lawsuit to reverse the 2019 law, arguing it forces pregnancy and childbirth on women, many of whom do not know they are pregnant at six weeks.

The state, which was named as a defendant in the case, argued that the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade ruling in June effectively erased the constitutional right to abortion.

The law makes exceptions for cases of rape and incest or when the life of the mother or fetus is at risk.

Key Background

McBurney in August rejected the plaintiffs’ request to immediately block the abortion ban while the lawsuit moved through the court system, but noted the ruling was a procedural one that did not speak to the merits of the case. In his Thursday ruling, McBurney said the ban could someday go back into effect, but only after the legislature passes a new law “in the sharp glare of public attention.”

What To Watch For

State Attorney General Chris Carr (R )’s office said it plans to “pursue an immediate appeal” of the decision, spokesperson Kara Richardson reportedly told Axios.

Tangent

Georgia joins more than a dozen other states ordered to halt abortion bans that went into effect after Roe v. Wade’s reversal. The Indiana Supreme Court in October extended a block on the state’s near-total ban on abortions until at least January after a lower court rejected the law a week after it went into effect in September. Arizona must continue allowing abortions until at least Thursday, the deadline set by a state appeals court for submitting briefs in a lawsuit that challenged the state’s abortion ban. Ohio’s six-week abortion ban, which took effect hours after Roe v. Wade’s reversal, is blocked indefinitely amid a lawsuit against it. In Mississippi, however, State Judge Debbra K. Halford denied a request to prevent the state’s six-week abortion ban from taking effect. The lawsuit was dropped after the abortion clinic that filed it closed.

Further Reading

Indiana Supreme Court Keeps Abortion Ban Blocked—Here’s Where State Lawsuits Stand Now (Forbes)