Georgia's 6-week abortion limits back in effect indefinitely as state appeal proceeds
Abortion is once again outlawed in Georgia after around six weeks of pregnancy.
The Supreme Court of Georgia reinstated the state’s abortion ban on Monday, a week after a lower court blocked the law, briefly allowing providers to resume offering the procedure up to the previous legal cutoff of roughly 20 weeks of pregnancy.
The state Supreme Court’s order halted a decision by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney striking down the abortion law.
House Bill 481 bans most abortions once an ultrasound can detect cardiac activity in an embryo’s cells.
McBurney had ruled the law violates the state constitution’s rights to privacy, which he ruled include the right to make personal healthcare decisions.
“Once again, the will of Georgians and their representatives has been overruled by the personal beliefs of one judge,” Kemp said in a statement. “Protecting the lives of the most vulnerable among us is one of our most sacred responsibilities, and Georgia will continue to be a place where we fight for the lives of the unborn.”
Republican state Attorney General Chris Carr is appealing the Fulton County Superior Court decision.
Georgia’s high court ruling allows the abortion ban to remain in effect while it considers the state’s appeal.
“It is cruel that our patients’ ability to access the reproductive health care they need has been taken away yet again. Once again, we are being forced to turn away those in need of abortion care beyond six weeks of pregnancy and deny them care that we are fully capable of providing to change their lives. This ban has wreaked havoc on Georgians’ lives, and our patients deserve better,” said Kwajelyn Jackson, executive director of Feminist Women’s Health Center, in a statement.
“The state of Georgia has chosen to subject our community to those devastating harms once again, even in light of the deadly consequences we have already witnessed. We will keep fighting to protect our patients, their health, their rights, and their dignity — in the clinic, the Capitol, the courts and the community.”
For now, the state Supreme Court order left in place Judge McBurney’s ruling blocking a separate provision of the abortion law that gives state prosecutors access to abortion patients’ medical records.
H.B. 481 took effect in 2022 after the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and national abortion protections.
Before the Roe decision, Georgia’s law was blocked on constitutional grounds.
The ban is linked to the deaths of at least two Georgians, who died after they couldn’t access “legal abortions and timely medical care,” according to an investigation by ProPublica.
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