Judge strikes down Georgia ban on abortions, allowing them to resume beyond 6 weeks into pregnancy

A Georgia judge on Monday struck down the state's abortion law, which took effect in 2022 and effectively prohibited abortions beyond about six weeks of pregnancy.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney wrote in his order 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."

When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 and ended a national right to abortion, it opened the door for state bans. Fourteen states now bar abortion at all stages of pregnancy, with some exceptions. Georgia was one of four where the bans kick in after about the first six weeks of pregnancy -- which is often before women realize they're pregnant.

The impact of bans has been felt deeply in the South because many people have to travel hundreds of miles to states where abortion procedures can be obtained legally.

Georgia's law was passed by state lawmakers and signed by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp in 2019 but had been blocked from taking effect until the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, which had protected the right to an abortion for nearly 50 years.

The law prohibited most abortions once a "detectable human heartbeat" was present. Cardiac activity can be detected by ultrasound in cells within an embryo that will eventually become the heart around six weeks into a pregnancy.

McBurney wrote that his ruling means the law in the state returns to what it was before the law was passed in 2019.

"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 abortions "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," the order says.