Fulton County judge strikes down Georgia's heartbeat law

(The Center Square) – A Fulton County judge struck down Georgia's Heartbeat Law on Monday, opening the door to abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.

The law, passed by the Georgia General Assembly in 2019 and signed by Gov. Brian Kemp, took effect in 2022 after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld the abortion ban last October but sent the case back to Fulton County Superior Court. Judge Robert McBurney said the law was unconstitutional in Monday's ruling.

"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 said in the decision posted on the American Civil Liberties Union website. "An arbitrary six-week ban on PECAP 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."

PECAP is an acronym for post-embryonic cardiac activity pregnancy.

Kemp's office said in a statement provided to The Center Square, “Once again, the will of Georgians and their representatives have been overruled by the personal beliefs of one judge. Protecting the lives of the most vulnerable among us is one of our most sacred responsibilities, and Georgia will continue to be a place where we fight for the lives of the unborn.”

The case was filed by SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, the American Civil Liberties Union, and others.

"We know that the fight continues as anti-abortion white supremacists will stop at nothing to control our bodies and attack our liberation," said Monica Simpson, executive director of the organization, in a release from the ACLU. "We are ready for them and will never back down until we achieve Reproductive Justice: the human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, the human right to have children, or not, and raise them in safe and sustainable communities.”