Judge Robert McBurney of Superior Court of Fulton County in Atlanta ruled Sept. 30 that Georgia can no longer enforce its so-called "heartbeat law" on abortion, a six-week abortion ban that went into effect after Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022.
With McBurney's ruling, abortions are now legally allowed in Georgia until about 22 weeks of pregnancy.
"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 in the 26-page ruling.
This power a woman has is "not unlimited," however, and that "when a fetus growing inside a woman reaches viability … then – and only then – may society intervene," he said.
The law, a so-called "heartbeat" ban called the LIFE Act, prohibits with some exceptions abortion after fetal cardiac activity can be detected. The law was signed by Gov. Brian Kemp in 2019 but it did not go into effect immediately because Roe v. Wade was the law of the land at the time it was passed.
In a 2022 decision, McBurney had called the law "unequivocally unconstitutional" because it was enacted in 2019, while Roe v. Wade was still in place.
But the Georgia Supreme Court rejected McBurney's ruling in a 6-1 decision Oct. 24, 2023, allowing the six-week ban to remain in effect amid ongoing legal challenges.
"When the United States Supreme Court overrules its own precedent interpreting the United States Constitution, we are then obligated to apply the Court's new interpretation of the Constitution's meaning on matters of federal constitutional law," Justice Verda Colvin wrote in a majority opinion.
McBurney's Sept. 30 ruling is expected to be appealed.
The Catholic Church teaches that all human life is sacred from conception to natural death, and as such, opposes direct abortion.
