Georgia Supreme Court reinstates six-week abortion ban

The Georgia Supreme Court on Monday reinstated a law in the southern US state prohibiting abortions for women who are more than six weeks pregnant, one week after it was struck down by a lower court.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ruled last week that Georgia's so-called "heartbeat" abortion law is unconstitutional.

Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, a Republican, appealed the ruling and the state supreme court on Monday put it on hold while the appeal is being heard.

The US Supreme Court, meanwhile, let stand a conservative lower court's ruling that hospitals in Texas -- where abortion laws are among the strictest in the nation -- are not required under federal law to perform emergency abortions.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre denounced the Georgia and Texas decisions.

The Supreme Court decision "means that women in Texas could still be denied critical emergency medical care because of the state's dangerous and extreme abortion bans," Jean-Pierre told reporters.

"The stories we hear of women being denied care they need in emergency situations is completely unacceptable," she said.

Georgia's law bans abortions after an embryo's cardiac activity can be detected, which is usually around six weeks, before many women even know they are pregnant.

It was passed by the Republican-dominated state legislature in 2019 and went into effect in 2022 after the US Supreme Court struck down the nationwide right to the procedure.

The Supreme Court's abortion ruling unleashed a wave of restrictions in nearly two dozen of the 50 US states, and abortion rights have become a key issue in the November presidential election between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris.

McBurney's ruling would have once again allowed abortions in Georgia up until fetal viability, which is around 22 weeks of pregnancy.

"Liberty in Georgia includes... 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," the judge said.

"That power is not, however, unlimited," he added. "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."

Monica Simpson, executive director of the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, which brought the case challenging the six-week abortion ban, denounced the Georgia Supreme Court's decision as "unconscionable."

"Every minute this harmful six-week abortion ban is in place, Georgians suffer," Simpson said. "Denying our community members the lifesaving care they deserve jeopardizes their lives, safety, and health."