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A Fulton County judge overturned Georgia’s six-week abortion ban by ruling that two key parts of the law were “clearly unconstitutional when drafted, put to the vote and enacted,” and writing that the law was not enforced can be.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney’s 15-page ruling stems from a lawsuit that argued that the state’s “Heartbeat Bill” violated the liberty and privacy rights of pregnant people under the Georgian constitution. Plaintiffs also argued that the law violated the U.S. Constitution at the time it was enacted — in 2019, when Roe v. Which was still the law of the land.
“It’s really important for Georgians to see these kinds of victories when the opposition is working so hard to push us back,” said Monica Simpson, executive director of the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective advocacy group, the lead plaintiff in the case.
Following Tuesday’s decision, access to abortions in Georgia returned to pre-ban levels of up to 22 weeks’ gestation.
Andrew Isenhour, a spokesman for Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R), said in a statement that the ruling “places a judge’s personal beliefs above the will of the Georgia legislature and people.” The Georgia Attorney General’s office immediately appealed to the Georgia Supreme Court.
Georgia’s abortion law was among the strictest in the country when Kemp signed it in 2019. The law bans abortions after fetal heart activity is detected at about six weeks. The entry into force had been blocked until this summer, when the Supreme Court overturned decades of protection for Roe v. Wade picked up.
In his ruling, McBurney wrote that “subject to reviewing Georgia precedent,” the relevant legal environment to be considered “is not our current post-Roe Dobbsian era, but rather the legal environment that existed when HB 481 was enacted.”
“At that time — in the spring of 2019 — it was clearly unconstitutional throughout America, including Georgia, for governments — at the federal, state, or local level — to ban abortion prior to feasibility,” he wrote.
Kemp, who won re-election last week, could face pressure from anti-abortion advocates to pass new restrictions once lawmakers reconvene in January.
Alice Wang, an attorney for the Center for Reproductive Rights, which was among the groups representing the plaintiffs, said there was “great concern” that Georgia lawmakers could attempt to enact another six-week or even full abortion ban.
“A large majority of Americans support access to abortion,” Wang said. “These strict abortion bans do not correspond to the will of the people.”
However, national anti-abortion groups and politicians have criticized Tuesday’s verdict as legal activism. Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of SBA Pro-Life America, said in a statement that McBurney “ignored the will of the voters and instead imposed his own penchant for abortion on Georgia.”
Meanwhile, abortion providers quickly began working with their staff to determine when to resume offering abortions after six weeks.
Planned Parenthood Southeast, which has four clinics in Georgia, said it is working with its operations and legal teams to determine when to resume services, hoping to do so “immediately.” The organization’s patient access center has been “inundated” with calls since the ruling was issued Tuesday, said Amy Kennedy, the group’s vice president of foreign affairs.
Carafem’s legal team, which operates a network of clinics and telemedicine services and has an office in Atlanta, quickly began discussing the verdict after the verdict was announced.
“We are listening carefully to our legal advisors as they help us review today’s ruling and we really hope to be able to resume services quickly,” said Melissa Grant, Carafem’s Chief Operating Officer. However, she added that Carafem “needed a little time to regroup” before its facilities can resume operations.
In Georgia, 13 clinics have continued to perform abortions since Roe was ousted. One clinic has been closed since the Supreme Court ruling in June, according to an October report by the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that campaigns for abortion rights.
Given Tuesday’s ruling, Georgia could become a destination for patients across the South if the procedure remains legal in the state. Despite the roughly six-week ban, Carafem providers saw patients arriving from states like Kentucky, Alabama and Mississippi.
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