Georgia judge strikes down state's six-week ban on abortions

A judge in Georgia has struck down the state's limited ban on abortions, once again making abortions before six weeks legal after years of back and forth rulings.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney wrote that a "review of our higher courts’ interpretations of 'liberty' demonstrates that 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."

The judge said the existing six-week ban on abortions was therefore "inconsistent" with the rights of mothers and was therefore unconstitutional.

"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."

The ruling prevents the state of Georgia and any of its authorities from enforcing the six-week abortion ban.

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Georgia's ban on most abortions after six weeks became law in 2019. But it was later blocked until the Supreme Court's 2022 overturning of Roe v Wade caused it to automatically take effect.

According to a report published by ProPublica in September 2024, a state committee found new abortion rules following that Supreme Court decision have contributed to the deaths of at least two women in Georgia. One of them chose not to get medical treatment because she feared being accused of a crime.