BREAKING: Judge overturns Georgia abortion ban after heartbeat detected

by The Right Scoop

The Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney has just overturned the state’s pro-life law banning abortions at six weeks after a fetal heartbeat is detected.

The judge ruled that the new law is unconstitutional and violates the Supreme Court precedent when it was enacted.

 
Here’s more from the AP:

A judge overturned Georgia’s ban on abortion starting around six weeks into a pregnancy, ruling Tuesday that it violated the U.S. Constitution and U.S. Supreme Court precedent when it was enacted.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney’s ruling applies statewide. The ban had been in effect since July.

It prohibited most abortions once a “detectable human heartbeat” is present. Cardiac activity can be detected by ultrasound in cells within an embryo that will eventually become the heart as early as six weeks into a pregnancy. That means most abortions in Georgia were effectively banned at a point before many women knew they were pregnant.

McBurney’s ruling came in a lawsuit that sought to strike down the ban on multiple grounds, including that it violates the Georgia Constitution’s right to privacy and liberty by forcing pregnancy and childbirth on women in the state. The lawsuit filed by doctors and advocacy groups in July also argued that Georgia’s abortion ban was invalid because it violated the U.S. Constitution and U.S. Supreme Court precedent when it was enacted.

McBurney agreed with that argument in his decision.

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 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allowed Georgia to begin enforcing its abortion law just over three weeks after the high court’s decision in June.

According to this Democrat, who is quite gleeful with this judge’s decision to overturn the law, this decision might not last that long given that the state will likely ask for a stay of this order:

Hopefully the state will get a stay of this order quickly and we can bring that news to you soon.


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