Georgia top court reinstates ban on abortions after six weeks
2024.10.07 14:03
By Brendan Pierson
(Reuters) -Georgia’s highest court on Monday reinstated a ban on nearly all abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy while it considers the U.S. state’s appeal of last week’s ruling by a lower court judge blocking the law.
The order from the Supreme Court of Georgia allows the ban to take effect at 5 p.m. on Monday. The lawsuit challenging the ban was brought by Atlanta-based SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective.
“Today, the Georgia Supreme Court sided with anti-abortion extremists,” SisterSong executive director Monica Simpson said in a statement. “Every minute this harmful six-week abortion ban is in place, Georgians suffer.”
The office of Georgia Governor Brian Kemp did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney blocked the law on Sept. 30, finding that it violated the rights to privacy and liberty guaranteed by the state constitution.
The law bans almost all abortions after a “human heartbeat” is detected, typically around six weeks, before many women know they are pregnant. It was passed in 2019 but did not take effect until the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 overturned its longstanding Roe v. Wade precedent, which had guaranteed abortion rights nationwide.
