Judge Strikes Down Georgia’s Six Week Abortion Ban

A Georgia judge struck down the state’s six week abortion ban on Monday.

The Fulton County superior court judge called the six week ban “arbitrary” and ruled that “liberty” in Georgia includes “the power of a woman to control her own body, to decide what happens to it and in it, and to reject state interference with her healthcare choices.”

“That power is not, however, unlimited,” Judge Robert McBurney wrote in his ruling. “When a fetus growing inside a woman reaches viability, when society can assume care and responsibility for that separate life, then — and only then — may society intervene.”

With the ban struck down, abortions are now legal up to viability, usually considered around 22 weeks of pregnancy, although younger babies have survived outside the womb. Under the ban, abortions had been illegal in Georgia after cardiac activity was detected, usually around six weeks.

This is the second time Georgia’s six week abortion ban has been struck down. The first time was in November, 2022 shortly after the law took effect the previous July. The law had been blocked since 2019.

The state filed an appeal to Georgia’s Supreme Court, which sent the case back to Fulton County.

Georgia saw about half the number of abortions each month under the ban as it did before the law took effect, according to the Society of Family Planning.

In the weeks leading up to the ban being overturned, several misleading news stories blamed the Georgia ban for two women’s deaths.

In one case, a woman who took abortion pills developed an infection when she did not expel all the parts of her deceased unborn twins. An Atlanta hospital took 20 hours to perform a dilation and curettage (D&C) on her to clear out her uterus, but it was too late, and she passed away.

Media outlets blamed the abortion ban for the woman’s death, falsely suggesting that D&Cs are illegal under the abortion ban since this procedure is also used in abortions. However, the Georgia law does not mention D&Cs, and abortion is specifically defined in the law as causing “the death of an unborn child.” In this case, the unborn twins were already deceased.

In another similar case, a Georgia woman took abortion pills but failed to expel all the tissue of her unborn baby. She later took a lethal combination of painkillers including fentanyl and ultimately passed away at home. Her family said she had not sought medical care “due to the current legislation on pregnancies and abortions” despite the treatment for her condition being legal.