The state Supreme Court reinstated Georgia’s restrictive abortion law one week after a Fulton County Superior Court judge ruled it was unconstitutional.
The restrictions will stay on the books during the appeals process, the court ordered by a 6-1 vote.
That means that as of 5 p.m. Monday, most abortions can no longer occur once medical professionals can detect fetal cardiac activity. That typically occurs at about six weeks into a pregnancy and before many know they are pregnant.
Last week, Fulton Superior Judge Robert McBurney ruled that the state’s law, which took effect in July 2022, was unconstitutional because it violated a woman’s right to liberty by taking away her ability to decide what to do with her body.
Six of the state’s high court’s justices concurred with the decision to stay McBurney’s ruling and reinstate the state law for now. Justice John Ellington disagreed with allowing the law to be enforced. Presiding Justice Nels Peterson was disqualified, and Justice Andrew Pinson did not participate.
In his dissension, Ellington said the court should not have granted the state’s request to reinstate the law while the appeal made its way through the court process.
“In its motion, the state fails to show any reason for urgency that goes beyond their underlying arguments in favor of allowing the state to prevent women from deciding whether to terminate a pregnancy after embryonic cardiac activity can be detected and before a fetus is viable,” he wrote. “Fundamentally, the state should not be in the business of enforcing laws that have been determined to violate fundamental rights guaranteed to millions of individuals under the Georgia Constitution.”
Claire Bartlett, executive director of the anti-abortion Georgia Life Alliance, said the Supreme Court order was “great news.”
“But to us, it’s not surprising because, as we said before, McBurney’s ruling was not based in reality or law and we expect the Supreme Court to uphold the (abortion law) at the end of the day,” she said.
The SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective and other abortion rights activists and providers sued the state in 2022, saying the law violated a woman’s right to privacy under the state’s constitution.
“Today, the Georgia Supreme Court sided with anti-abortion extremists. Every minute this harmful six-week abortion ban is in place, Georgians suffer,” SisterSong Executive Director Monica Simpson said. “Denying our community members the lifesaving care they deserve jeopardizes their lives, safety and health — all for the sake of power and control over our bodies.”
McBurney’s order allowed abortions up to about 22 weeks of pregnancy and declared the more restrictive law violated the state constitution.
Georgia’s law took effect in 2022 after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, which had guaranteed the national right to an abortion for nearly 50 years.
Georgia allows later abortions in instances of rape and incest if they provide a police report. Later abortions are also allowed to save the life of the mother or in instances of fetal anomaly.
McBurney’s ruling came two weeks after the nonprofit news organization ProPublica first reported that two Georgia women, Amber Thurman and Candi Miller, died from abortion-related complications in the months after the law took effect in 2022.
Julia Kaye, senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union’s Reproductive Freedom Project representing SisterSong, said the order “doubles our resolve” to continue fighting to have the law overturned.
“Gov. (Brian) Kemp and Attorney General (Chris) Carr told the state Supreme Court that reinstating an abortion ban that is literally killing Georgia women would not cause ‘much harm,’ and the state Supreme Court apparently believed that cruel lie,” Kaye said.
Monday’s ruling comes after the state Supreme Court last year reversed a 2022 ruling from McBurney in which he said the 2019 law had been passed illegally since Roe v. Wade was the law of the land at the time. The law was stricken from the books for eight days in November 2022 until, as it did this year, the Supreme Court reinstated the restrictions while the appeal was heard.
That sent the case last November back to McBurney, who was asked to rule on the constitutionality of the law, which he did last week.
The attorney general’s office has yet to file its full appeal with the Supreme Court. It filed an intent to appeal last week. It’s unclear when the appeal could be argued before the Supreme Court.
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