Georgia’s six-week abortion ban reverses
By Adeyemi Adekunle
A judge of a Superior Court in Georgia has reversed the state’s law banning abortions as early as six weeks of pregnancy, ruling it unconstitutional and saying it cannot be implemented.
The ruling from Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney makes the procedure legal in the state again until at least 20 weeks of pregnancy, significant immediately. The judge’s order comes in response to a lawsuit that strived to strike down the ban on multiple grounds and will apply statewide.
HB481, dubbed Georgia’s LIFE Act, bans, with some anomalies, abortion when early cardiac activity is detected – as early as six weeks into a pregnancy when many women don’t yet know they are pregnant.
The lawsuit was filed by SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, a group that seeks to “strengthen and amplify the collective voices of indigenous women and women of color to achieve reproductive justice”.
“After a long road, we are finally able to celebrate the end of an extreme abortion ban in our state,” Monica Simpson, executive director of SisterSong, said in a statement, adding: “While we applaud the end of a ban steeped in white supremacy, it should not have existed in the first place. Now, it’s time to move forward with a vision for Georgia that establishes full physical autonomy and freedom for our communities.
In his opinion, McBurney wrote that when Georgia lawmakers passed the bill and Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signed it in 2019, “the supreme law of this land unequivocally was – and had been for nearly half a century – that laws unduly restricting abortion before viability were unconstitutional.”
Because the right to pre-viability abortion existed nationwide when the law was enacted, Georgia could not legally restrict it at that time, he wrote.
The state has filed a notice of appeal, according to a Kemp spokesperson.
“Today’s ruling places the subjective beliefs of a judge over the will of the legislature and people of Georgia,” the spokesperson said.
When approving the measure in 2019, Kemp said: “I realize that some may challenge it in a court of law. But our job is to do what is right, not what is easy. We are called to be strong and dignified, and we will not back down. We will always continue to fight for life.”
State Attorney General Chris Carr, a Republican, “will continue to fulfill our duty to defend the laws of our state in court,”, Kara Richardson, his spokesman said in an email.
McBurney wrote in his statement that sections of the legislation “were constitutional when drafted, voted upon, and enacted.”
“…everywhere in America, including Georgia, it was unequivocally unconstitutional for governments — federal, state, or local — to ban abortions before viability,” he wrote, adding that “if the courts have spoken, clearly and directly, as to what the law is, as to what is and is not constitutional, legislatures and legislators are not at liberty to pass laws contrary to such pronouncements.”
A Nigerian trained investigative journalist, who cover various news beats in Nigeria.
