Georgia's strict abortion ban is unconstitutional, judge rules

A Georgia judge struck down the state’s abortion law on Monday, ruling that the prohibition on abortions after six weeks is unconstitutional, CNN reported.

In his ruling, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney wrote that the state’s Living Infants Fairness and Equality Act, or LIFE Act, violates a woman’s state constitutional rights. The law had been challenged by the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Collective.

"[L]liberty in Georgia includes in its meaning, in its protections, and in its bundle of rights 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," McBurney wrote.

Georgia's abortion ban was imposed after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade in 2022. After McBurney’s ruling, Georgia must now allow abortions up until about 20 weeks of pregnancy, PBS News reported.

“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," McBurney wrote. "An arbitrary six-week ban on (post-embryonic cardiac activity pregnancy) terminations is inconsistent with these rights and the proper balance that a viability rule establishes between a woman’s rights of liberty and privacy and society’s interest in protecting and caring for unborn infants."