A judge in Fulton County, Georgia, has overturned the state's “heartbeat” abortion law, which made it illegal to terminate a pregnancy after six weeks.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ordered Monday that abortions must be regulated as they were before the Heartbeat Act, meaning abortions may be allowed up to 22 weeks of pregnancy. issued.
“The framers of our state and federal constitutions entrusted to future generations a charter that protects the rights of all to enjoy freedom as we learn its meaning,” McBurney wrote in his final order. said. “After considering our high court's interpretation of 'freedom,' we find that freedom in Georgia includes, among its meanings, protections and bundles of rights, the ability to control one's body and what happens to it. It is shown to include a woman's power to decide and reject state interference in her health care choices.
“But that power is not unlimited,” the judge added. “When the fetus growing inside a woman reaches a state of viability and society can assume care and responsibility for that separate life, then, and only then, can society intervene. is.”
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Anti-abortion activists hold signs outside the U.S. Supreme Court after the reversal of Roe v. Abortion. Wade in Washington, DC, June 24, 2022. (Stephanie Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)
McBurney went on to say that laws banning abortion after six weeks are inconsistent with these rights, and that the viability rule conflicts with women's rights and society's interests in protecting and caring for the unborn child. He said it was also inconsistent with establishing the appropriate balance.
And he declared the “Life Act” to be “unconstitutional.”
Republican Georgia Governor Brian Kemp signed the “Heartbeat” abortion bill (also known as the Infant Fairness and Equality Act) into law in 2019. The law made abortion illegal after six weeks of birth.
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Abortion rights demonstrators hold placards during a rally, May 14, 2022. (AP)
Exceptions such as rape and incest were written into the law as long as police reports were filed. Another exception to the law allowed abortions after six weeks if the mother's life was in danger or if the fetus was not viable due to a serious medical condition.
The law signed by Kemp was blocked in October 2019 before it went into effect by a federal judge, who ruled that it violated Roe's right to abortion. 1973 match against Wade.
The Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade in June 2022, clearing the way for Georgia's abortion law to go into effect.
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Georgia's Republican Governor Brian Kemp signed a “heartbeat” abortion bill into law in 2019, but a Fulton County judge ruled it unconstitutional. (Megan Varner/Getty Images)
McBurney ruled in November 2022 that the law was “plainly unconstitutional” because it was enacted in 2019 during Roe v. Wade, which allowed abortions after six weeks. I put it down.
However, in October 2023, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled in a 6-1 decision that McBurney's decision was wrong.
“When the United States Supreme Court overturns its own precedent interpreting the Constitution, we are obligated to apply the Supreme Court's new interpretation of the meaning of the Constitution on federal constitutional issues,” Justice Velda Colvin wrote for the majority. I wrote it as an opinion.
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Monday's McBurney decision said states, counties, cities and other local governments are “prohibited” from enforcing six-week abortion laws.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
