Georgia’s Supreme Court on Monday reinstated the state’s six-week abortion ban while hearing the state’s appeal from a lower court. annulled judgment law.
The ruling takes effect at 5pm local time, meaning most abortions will again be illegal in the state after six weeks of pregnancy.
However, the state Supreme Court’s decision upheld a lower court ruling that blocked a separate provision of the law, which gave state prosecutors broad access to abortion patients’ medical records without due process protections.
The can be said to ban abortion in the stateKnown as the LIFE Act, it was signed into law by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp in 2019, but after facing legal challenges and the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. It didn’t go into effect until July 2022 after it overturned its decision on Wade.
The law prohibits abortion care when many women detect a fetal heartbeat, which can be as early as six weeks before they know they are pregnant. This exceptions are included in some cases, to protect the life and health of the mother, and in some cases, fetal anomalies are detected.
A judge in Fulton County, Georgia last week struck the state’s six-week abortionallowing the procedure to proceed and be done almost immediately Legal up to 22 weeks pregnancy.
In that decision, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney wrote that “a review of our superior courts’ interpretations of “liberty” shows that liberty in Georgia includes the authority of a right in its meaning, protection, and set of rights.” A woman should be in control of her body, decide what happens to it and what happens to it, and reject state interference in her health care choices.”
“This power, however, is not unlimited,” McBurney continued. “When the fetus growing inside a woman reaches viability, when society can assume care and responsibility for that separate life, then – and only then – can society intervene.”
The Georgia Supreme Court’s decision, which took effect Monday while the court considered the state’s appeal of the lower court’s opinion, could cast more uncertainty over access to abortion services in a key battleground where Democrats have put the issue front and center.
The fate of some was texting Amber Nicole Thurman and Candy MillerTwo Black women who died in 2022 after suffering complications from taking abortion pills.
Vice President Kamala Harris highlighted their plight in her address to the White House.
Miller, who has multiple health problems, was legally afraid to see a doctor, and Thurman spent 20 hours in the hospital until doctors decided they could legally operate on him. This was reported by ProPublica a state board found that both deaths were preventable.
Reproductive rights groups condemned Monday’s decision.
Kwajelyn Jackson, executive director of the Center for Feminist Women’s Health, said in a statement, “It is cruel to take away our patients’ access to the reproductive health care they need again. This ban has taken a toll on the lives of Georgians, and our patients deserve better.”
Jaylen Black, a spokesman for Planned Parenthood Southeast, called the decision “a stark example of how far anti-abortion lawmakers and judges will go to deprive Georgians of their fundamental rights,” adding that the ban resulted in the devastating, preventable deaths of Amber Thurman and Candi Miller. and will continue to harm Georgians as long as it is in force.”