ATLANTA — For the second time, a Fulton County Superior Court Judge ruled to overturn Georgia's heartbeat law on Monday. Today, Georgia’s Republican attorney general has now appealed the judge’s ruling that struck down the state’s abortion ban.
Attorney General Chris Carr’s office is asking the Georgia Supreme Court to reinstate the law banning most abortions after the first six weeks or so of pregnancy while the court considers the state’s appeal.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ruled Monday that the ban in place since 2022 violated women’s rights to liberty and privacy under Georgia’s state constitution. His decision rolled back abortion limits in the state to a prior law that allowed abortions until viability, roughly 22 to 24 weeks into a pregnancy.
This comes after plaintiffs, Sistersong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective and its members, sought a permanent injunction to prohibit the state's "Living Infants Fairness and Equality Act," or LIFE Act, from being enforced and to determine it to be unconstitutional.
It also follows a ProPublica report that said at least two women died after they couldn't access legal abortions and timely medical care in Georgia.
Some Georgia clinic officials said they would begin accepting patients whose pregnancies are past six weeks’ gestation, though they're aware the ban could be reimposed quickly.
Carr's office noted in its notice of appeal filed Tuesday that the case goes straight to Georgia's highest court because it involves a challenge to the constitutionality of a state law.
The judge's ruling left 13 U.S. states with bans on abortion at all stages of pregnancy and three that bar them after the first six weeks or so of pregnancy.
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For context, the law was first passed in April 2019. One part of the law criminalized abortions after the embryo had a detectable human heartbeat. This is typically around six weeks. Before the law passed, abortions were allowed for up to around 20 weeks. The new heartbeat law also added a requirement that any physician who performs an abortion after detecting a fetal heartbeat must report it to the Department of Public Health.
Georgia's law did not go into effect until Roe V. Wade was overturned in 2022. Once the law was set to go into effect, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney made his first ruling that the state's ban violated the U.S. Constitution and U.S. Supreme Court precedent, according to previous reporting by 11Alive. The ruling was then applied statewide.