A judge in Georgia struck down the state’s six-week abortion ban on Monday afternoon.
The Fulton county judge, Robert McBurney, ruled the abortion ban unconstitutional under Georgia’s state constitution and suggested that the six-week abortion ban treated women like “collectively owned community property.”
“A review 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,” McBurney wrote. He added that society can only intervene in a person’s pregnancy when the fetus reaches viability, which is generally understood to be between 22 and 24 weeks.
“While the State’s interest in protecting ‘unborn’ life is compelling, until that life can be sustained by the State ― and not solely by the woman compelled by the Act to do the State’s work ― the balance of rights favors the woman,” McBurney wrote.
The six-week abortion ban was enacted in 2022, shortly after the Supreme Court repealed Roe v. Wade. Physicians in the state can now provide abortions until fetal viability, reverting to Georgia’s 2019 abortion law.
“Women are not some piece of collectively owned community property the disposition of which is decided by majority vote,” McBurney wrote. “Forcing a woman to carry an unwanted, not-yet-viable fetus to term violates her constitutional rights to liberty and privacy, even taking into consideration whatever bundle of rights the not-yet-viable fetus may have.”
The ruling is a monumental win for abortion rights advocates who have rallied against the extreme abortion ban. On Saturday, reproductive justice groups hosted a rally at the state capitol to demand a repeal of the law and commemorate the two women who died because of the state’s abortion ban. ProPublica recently reported that Amber Thurman and Candi Miller, two Black mothers from Georgia, died because they were denied proper medical treatment after using abortion pills.
“Today’s win was hard-fought and is a significant step in the right direction,” Monica Simpson, president of the women of color-focused reproductive justice organization SisterSong, said. “[But] every day the ban has been in place has been a day too long ― and we have felt the consequences, especially our Black and brown communities.”
Read the full ruling below.