Judge overturns Georgia’s abortion ban 

A state judge has overturned Georgia’s ban on abortions starting about six weeks after a woman becomes pregnant.

Fulton County Supreme Court Justice Robert McBurney ruled Tuesday that the state could no longer uphold the ban on abortion once a “detectable human heartbeat” is present.

Abortion rights activists have argued that heart activity can be detected through ultrasound in cells in an embryo that will eventually turn into the heart as early as six weeks into pregnancy — when a woman may not even know she is pregnant.

Any doctor found to be performing abortions will be prosecuted under the law.

Georgian lawmakers originally passed the law in 2019, but it didn’t take effect until July this year — following the historic Supreme Court ruling that overturned women’s right to abortion.

But according to McBurney’s ruling, abortions can only be regulated as they were before the state law went into effect in the summer, meaning the procedure is now allowed again up to 22 weeks of pregnancy.

Georgia state officials will appeal the decision, according to the government Atlanta Journal Constitutionafter McBurney previously rejected the state attorney’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit.

Pictured here is a group of abortion rights activists sitting on the steps of the Georgia State Capitol in June protesting the overturn of Roe v Wade

Protesters also marched in the streets of Atlanta, Georgia following the Supreme Court decision

Abortion rights activists had argued in court that when the law passed the state legislature in 2019, Roe v Wade — the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in the United States — had not yet been overturned.

According to them, state law prevented the legislature from enacting laws that conflicted with federal law.

They also argued that the abortion ban violates the Georgian constitution’s right to privacy and freedom by forcing pregnancy and childbirth on women.

But state attorneys argued that the law should remain in effect because “abortion always harms a third party,” namely the embryo or fetus.

McBurney ultimately agreed with the abortion activists, writing in his decision Tuesday that when the law was passed under Governor Brian Kemp, “It was unequivocally unconstitutional for any federal, state or local government anywhere in America, including Georgia — to ban abortions.” before they are viable. .’

He said its “means that courts – not legislators – make the law.

“Once the courts have spoken clearly and directly about what is law and what is and is not constitutional, legislatures and legislators are not free to pass laws that conflict with such rulings.”

McBurney concluded by writing that the state’s law “did not become Georgia law when it was passed, and it is not Georgia law now.”

The abortion ban was passed by the state legislature and was signed into law by Gov. Brian Kemp in 2019. He is pictured here addressing his supporters on election night

Georgia’s abortion law had defined a “detectable human heartbeat” as “embryonic or fetal cardiac activity or the steady and repetitive rhythmic contraction of the heart in the gestational sac.”

In addition, it declared an embryo or fetus a “natural person” once heart activity can be detected, saying that’s when “a child’s full value begins.”

The law made exceptions for rape and incest, as long as the woman first reports it to the police. It also allowed abortions after heart activity is detected when the woman’s life is in danger or when a fetus is determined to be non-viable due to a serious medical condition.

But almost immediately after it was passed, the state law caused a backlash, with several entertainment giants, including Disney, Netflix and Warner Studios, threatening to cut ties with the state if the measure ever went into effect.

Actress Alyssa Milano even called on women to boycott sex until the law was repealed.