A Georgia judge overturned the state’s ban on abortion beginning six weeks into a pregnancy, ruling Tuesday that it violated the U.S. Constitution and Supreme Court precedent when it was enacted in July.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney’s ruling applies throughout the entire state. The law was initially passed by the state legislature in 2019 but was enacted in July following the landmark high court opinion that overturned Roe v. Wade and paved the way for states to create laws severely restricting abortion.
When the law was enacted, “everywhere in America, including Georgia, it was unequivocally unconstitutional for governments — federal, state, or local — to ban abortions before viability,” McBurney wrote in his ruling.
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The judge added that while Supreme Court precedent changed after the June 24 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which curtailed Roe, the law “did not become the law of Georgia when it was enacted and it is not the law of Georgia now.”
The law was blocked from taking effect after its passage three years ago, but the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allowed Georgia to begin enforcing the law more than three weeks after the high court’s decision in June, which came ahead of the judgment for the decision on July 26.
A court judgment is separate from a ruling or opinion and is a formality that cements a decision roughly 30 days after an opinion in a case is determined.
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McBurney ultimately sided with challengers of the law that said it violated Georgia’s Constitution and right to privacy by forcing pregnancy and childbirth on women in the state. The lawsuit filed by doctors and advocacy groups in July contended the ban was invalid because it violated the U.S. Constitution and Supreme Court precedent at the time it was enacted.
The state maintained that the high court decision to curtail the 1973 precedent under Roe should allow its law to survive under the new Dobbs standard. An appeal of the decision by the state is forthcoming.
