Georgia judge temporarily stays law banning abortion after six weeks

A Georgia judge temporarily suspended the Live Infant Fairness and Equality Act(LIFE), which banned abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, when a fetal heartbeat can already be detected. According to the ruling by Robert CI McBurney of the Fulton County Superior Court, the legislation violated the state Constitution.

This is the second time McBurney has struck down the legislation, having already done so in 2019. However, the law went into effect after the Supreme Court Justice overturned Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey in mid-2022.

According to the justice's reasoning, the right to "liberty" guaranteed by the Georgia Constitution includes a woman's right to "control" what happens to her body.

"Whether one couches it as liberty or privacy (or even equal protection), this dispute is fundamentally about the extent of a woman’s right to control what happens to and within her body," the judge wrote in the ruling.

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

As a result, Georgia will again allow abortion up to approximately 22 weeks of pregnancy. However, the decision is expected to be appealed and could go all the way to the conservative-dominated state Supreme Court.

"We believe Georgia's LIFE Act is fully constitutional and we will immediately appeal the lower court's decision," said Kara Murray, spokeswoman for Chris Carr, Georgia's attorney general, following Judge McBurney's ruling.

What does Georgia law say about abortion?

From the state of Georgia they published a state document entitled 'Women's Right to Know,' which explains the scope of the legislation.

"The Georgia Legislature passed the Living Infants Fairness and Equality (LIFE) Act in 2019 and Governor Brian Kemp signed it into law on May 17, 2019. The law provides that no abortion shall be performed if the

unborn child has a detectable human heartbeat except (a) in the event of a medical emergency or medically futile pregnancy; or (b) in cases involving rape or incest in which an official police report has been filed and where the probable gestational age of the unborn child is 20 weeks or less. The law does not prohibit the removal of a dead unborn child caused by a spontaneous abortion or the removal of an ectopic pregnancy," the document explains.