North Fulton Today

A Fulton Superior Court Judge has overturned the state's ban on abortion starting around six weeks into a pregnancy. 

The state's abortion law banned most abortions once a detectable human heartbeat was present with cardiac activity being detected by ultrasound in cells within an embryo that will eventually become the heart as early as six weeks into the term of a pregnancy. According to a report by FOX 5 Atlanta, Tuesday's decision ruled that this violated the U.S. Constitution and Supreme Court precedent when it was enacted. 

"Everywhere in America, including Georgia, it was unequivocally unconstitutional for governments -- federal, state, or local -- to ban abortions before viability," Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney wrote in his ruling.

With the previous six-week period, many women were unable to make the decision for an abortion, with bans beginning before many even realized they were pregnant.

According to the report, the judge’s ruling came as part of a lawsuit filed by doctors and advocacy groups in July that sought to strike down the ban on multiple grounds, including assertions that it violates the state’s constitutional right to privacy and liberty by forcing pregnancy and childbirth on women in the state.

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.