The Georgia state Supreme Court reinstated the state’s six-week abortion ban on Monday after a lower court allowed abortions to resume in the state.
The ruling goes into effect at 5 p.m. ET and will remain in place while the court hears the state’s appeal, which was filed by Christopher Carr, the state’s Republican attorney general.
Justice John J. Ellington dissented in part, arguing against the ban being reinstated before the state’s appeal is heard.
“Fundamentally, the State should not be in the business of enforcing laws that have been determined to violate fundamental rights guaranteed to millions of individuals under the Georgia Constitution,” he wrote. “The ‘status quo’ that should be maintained is the state of the law before the challenged laws took effect.”
On Sept. 30, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ruled that the ban was unconstitutional, writing in his decision that the Georgia state constitution guaranteed the right to “liberty,” which includes a “woman’s right to control what happens to and within her body.” The state appealed the decision two days later.
The ban, which was signed into law in 2019 by Gov. Brian Kemp, prevents abortions from being performed once fetal cardiac activity can be defected, which typically occurs at about six weeks’ gestation — before many women know they’re pregnant — and redefines the word “person” in Georgia to include an embryo or fetus at any stage of development.
There are exceptions for rape or incest until 20 weeks of pregnancy as long as the victim has reported the crime to the police. Additionally, a patient can have an abortion up until 20 weeks if the fetus has defects and would not be able to survive or if the patient’s life is in danger.
The ban was blocked in court but was reinstated after the U.S. Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade in 2022.
“Seeing state politicians show such little empathy or respect for Georgians’ health and lives only doubles our resolve to keep fighting until every person has the freedom to make personal medical decisions during pregnancy and the power to chart the course of their own lives,” Julia Kaye, senior staff attorney with the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, a litigator on the case, said in a statement.
In a controversial decision, the Georgia Supreme Court has reversed a lower court ruling and reinstated a 6-week abortion ban in the state. The ban, known as the “heartbeat bill,” prohibits abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected, which typically occurs around six weeks into pregnancy.
The ruling comes after a legal battle that has been ongoing since the ban was first passed by the Georgia legislature in 2019. The law was immediately challenged by reproductive rights advocates and blocked by a lower court, which deemed it unconstitutional. However, the Georgia Supreme Court has now overturned that decision, stating that the ban does not violate the rights of women seeking abortions.
Proponents of the ban argue that it is necessary to protect the rights of the unborn and prevent abortions from being performed once a fetal heartbeat is present. They believe that life begins at conception and that it is important to protect the rights of the unborn.
Opponents of the ban, on the other hand, argue that it is an unconstitutional infringement on women’s reproductive rights. They believe that women should have the right to make their own decisions about their bodies and their pregnancies, without government interference.
The reinstatement of the 6-week abortion ban in Georgia is likely to reignite the debate over reproductive rights in the state and across the country. It is expected to have far-reaching implications for women seeking abortions in Georgia, as well as for other states considering similar legislation.
It remains to be seen how this decision will impact access to abortion services in Georgia and whether it will lead to further legal challenges. In the meantime, both sides of the debate are gearing up for what promises to be a long and contentious battle over reproductive rights in the state.
