The Georgia Supreme Court reinstated the state’s ban on abortion after roughly six weeks of gestation on Wednesday.
The decision places on hold a lower court ruling that overturned the ban while it considers an appeal. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ruled earlier this month that the state’s ban was improper because it was signed into law in 2019 despite the Supreme Court’s precedent at the time under Roe v. Wade that allowed abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.
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var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_69224041", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"1181585"} }); ","_id":"00000184-a581-d2c9-a9e6-b799a4460001","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedFollowing McBurney’s Nov. 15 ruling, the ban was lifted, and providers were able to resume such procedures.
GEORGIA’S SIX-WEEK ABORTION BAN RULED ‘UNCONSTITUTIONAL’ BY JUDGE
Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr appealed McBurney’s decision to the state Supreme Court. Attorneys for the state told the state Supreme Court that it is in the public interest not only to overturn McBurney’s ruling but to block it while the court considers the case.
“The harm to the state is significant and irreparable,” attorneys wrote in the appeal filed with the state Supreme Court. “Unborn children are at risk every day that the injunction continues.”
It is not immediately clear when the state Supreme Court will decide whether to block McBurney’s ruling permanently.
The Peach State’s ban took effect in July after the nation’s highest court overturned Roe on June 24. Georgia’s ban is designed to prohibit most abortions after a “detectable human heartbeat” is present.
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In the Nov. 15 decision, McBurney explained that while Supreme Court precedent changed after the June 24 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the law “did not become the law of Georgia when it was enacted.”
The six-week ban is being challenged by doctors and advocacy groups who contend the ban was invalid because it violated the U.S. Constitution and Supreme Court precedent at the time it was enacted.
