A judge in Georgia has overturned that state’s ban on abortions starting at six weeks into a pregnancy, ruling that it violated the U.S. Constitution and the U.S. Supreme Court when it was enacted.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney’s statewide ruling came from a lawsuit that alleged the law, put into effect in July, violated the Georgia Constitution’s right to privacy and liberty by forcing pregnancy and childbirth upon women in the state. The suit was filed by doctors and advocacy groups.
Georgia’s six-week ban was passed by state lawmakers and signed by Gov. Brian Kemp (R) in 2019, but it had been blocked from taking effect until the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, which occurred in June. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allowed Georgia to begin enforcing its abortion law just over three weeks after the high court’s decision.
McBurney said when the law was enacted, “everywhere in America, including Georgia, it was unequivocally unconstitutional for governments–federal, state, or local–to ban abortions before viability.”
The state of Georgia has argued that the Roe decision itself was wrong and the Supreme Court ruling wiped it out of existence.
