Georgia Supreme Court reinstates ban on abortions after roughly six weeks of pregnancy

Georgia’s state Supreme Court on Wednesday reinstated the state’s ban on abortions after roughly six weeks of pregnancy.

The Supreme Court granted the state’s emergency petition, and puts on hold a lower court ruling from last week where a judge called the ban “unconstitutional”

Reproductive rights groups had argued the state’s abortion ban violates the state’s constitution. They won a decision from the Superior Court of Fulton County, where Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ruled earlier this month that the ban was invalid.

McBurney cited the fact that the ban was signed into law three years prior to the Supreme Court’s decision to eventually overturn Roe v. Wade, the constitutional right to have an abortion. 

The state’s attorney general office also asked the state’s Supreme Court for an order to put the decision on hold while their appeal of McBurney’s was pending.

Georgia’s Living Infants Fairness and Equality (LIFE) Act, passed in 2019, would ban abortions in the state after a fetal heartbeat is detected, usually around six weeks of pregnancy. 

Georgia is one of the few GOP-led states to implement or enact abortion bans and restrictions after Roe was overturned by the nation’s highest court earlier this year.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.