Georgia Judge Strikes Down State’s Six Week Abortion Ban
NO HANDMAID’S TALE
Judge Robert McBurney sensationally ruled that “It is not for a legislator, a judge, or a Commander from The Handmaid’s Tale to tell these women what to do with their bodies.”
A judge in Georgia has reversed a controversial ban that limited abortions in the state before many women know they are pregnant. The decision, which allows doctors to perform abortions after six weeks is a big win for pro-choice activists and means women can abort a fetus up to 22 weeks. The ruling on Monday by Judge Robert McBurney, forcefully struck down as unconstitutional the LIFE Act that was signed into law by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp in 2019 and took effect in July 2022. Judge McBurney said in his decision that in light of “our higher courts’ interpretations of ‘liberty’ demonstrates 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.” There are caveats, however. “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.” According to NBC News, the decision stems from a lawsuit filed in 2019 by SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective and other plaintiffs.
