Georgia can no longer enforce its ban on abortion that took effect in 2022, a Fulton County judge said Monday, allowing the procedure again to be performed after a doctor detects fetal cardiac activity.
Fulton County Superior Judge Robert McBurney issued an order Monday that said abortions must be regulated as they were before Georgia’s 2019 law took effect in July 2022 — meaning the procedure is again allowed up until about 22 weeks of pregnancy.
SISTERSONG WOMEN OF COLOR REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE COLLECTIVE, on behalf of itself and its members et al., Plaintiffs v. STATE OF GEORGIA
"A review of our higher courts’ interpretations of “liberty” demonstrates that liberty in Georgia includes in its meaning, in its protections, and in its bundle of rights 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. 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. An arbitrary six-week ban on PECAP terminations is inconsistent with these rights and the proper balance that a viability rule establishes between a woman’s rights of liberty and privacy and society’s interest in protecting and caring for unborn infants." JUDGE ROBERT C.I. MCBURNEY Superior Court of Fulton County
