A judge strikes down Georgia’s six-week abortion ban, setting up a new battle over reproductive rights in the supreme court of a key battleground state.

A Georgia judge on Monday struck down the state’s six-week abortion ban after ruling it unconstitutional, and termination of pregnancy is now legal in the state up to about 22 weeks.

The ban first went into effect in 2022 and prohibited women from having abortions beyond six weeks of pregnancy.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney wrote in his order that the law violates the Georgia Constitution.

It found that “freedom in Georgia includes in its meaning, in its protections, and in its set of rights the power of a woman to control her own body, to decide what happens to and within it, and to reject interference of the State in his body”. health care options.”

Now that the state attorney general will appeal, the decision sets up another potential battle in the Georgia Supreme Court over reproductive rights.

When the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 and ended the national right to abortion, opening the door to state bans.

Currently, thirteen states prohibit abortion at all stages of pregnancy, with some exceptions.

Georgia was one of four countries where bans begin approximately after the first six weeks of pregnancy, often before women realize they are pregnant.

McBurney’s ruling would allow abortions during at least 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Kara Murray, a spokeswoman for Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, said she would immediately appeal to the state supreme court.

The state high court earlier overturned a separate ruling by McBurney that had struck down the law on different grounds and could stay Monday’s ruling pending an appeal.

“We believe Georgia’s life law is fully constitutional,” Murray said.

The bans have been keenly felt in the South because many people live hundreds of miles from states where abortion procedures can be obtained legally. If the Georgia ruling stands, it could open new avenues for access to abortion not only in Georgia, but also for people in nearby states.

The Georgia law was passed by state lawmakers and signed by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp in 2019, but was initially blocked from taking effect until the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, who had protected abortion rights for almost 50 years.

In the past, Kemp has tried to soften his political impact by focusing on mothers’ health. On Monday he attacked the ruling.

“Once again, the will of Georgians and their representatives has been overridden by a judge’s personal beliefs,” Kemp said in a statement. “Protecting the lives of the most vulnerable among us is one of our most sacred responsibilities, and Georgia will continue to be a place where we fight for the lives of the unborn.”

Carol Tobias, president of the National Right to Life Committee, called the ruling “ridiculous.”

“This judge is an activist judge who ignores the rulings of higher courts to do what he wants,” he said in an interview. “And I don’t think it’s going to stick.”

Monica Simpson, executive director of SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, welcomed the ruling.

“Since we’ve seen these direct attacks here in the South, particularly against access to abortion, we’ve been in a deep defensive posture for a long time,” he said. “It seems that our work has not been in vain.”

While carafem, an abortion provider in Atlanta, plans to expand its services as permitted in the coming weeks, co-founder Melissa Grant said she fears a reversal.

“Staff and clients will live with this pending possibility of immediate change, and that can be devastating for people trying to plan their lives and take care of their health,” Grant said.

Kwajelyn Jackson, executive director of the Feminist Women’s Health Center, another abortion provider in Atlanta, said they “will not turn patients away based on the presence or absence of fetal heart activity, so as long as we can, we’re hopeful.” that we will be able to care for patients who need our services.’

Georgia law prohibited most abortions once a “detectable human heartbeat” was present. Cardiac activity can be detected using ultrasound in the cells of an embryo that will eventually become the heart around six weeks of pregnancy.

Before the law went into effect, there were more than 4,400 abortions each month in Georgia. That has dropped by a monthly average of about 2,400 since the ban began in 2022, according to data from the Family Planning Society.

The ruling means the law in the state reverts to its previous state, allowing abortions up to approximately 20 weeks of pregnancy, McBurney wrote.

The right to privacy in the Georgia Constitution includes the right to make personal decisions about health care, he wrote.

“When a fetus growing inside a woman reaches viability, when society can assume the care and responsibility for that separate life, then – and only then – can it intervene,” McBurney wrote.

An “arbitrary six-week ban” on abortion “is inconsistent with these rights and the proper balance that a workable rule establishes between women’s rights to liberty and privacy and society’s interest in protecting and caring for unborn babies.” born,” the order says.

Claire Bartlett, executive director of the Georgia Life Alliance, expressed confidence that the Georgia Supreme Court would again overrule McBurney, saying it wrongly attempted to “create a right to abortion out of thin air by determining that it resides in our Constitution.”

“It is simply ironic that based on your decision regarding Georgia’s constitutional protection against a person deprived of life, liberty or property, which is the argument, you chose to focus on a woman’s right to liberty rather than the right from child to life,” Bartlett said.

In part because Georgia has no way for citizens to put initiatives on the ballot, there is no referendum on abortion rights scheduled for this year’s Georgia elections. But Democrats have focused on abortion because it appeals to women and suburbanites.

Last month, Vice President Kamala Harris visited Atlanta to portray Republican Donald Trump as a threat to women’s freedom and lives, warning that Trump would further limit access to abortion if re-elected. It is also a key issue in state legislative elections in which Democrats try to chip away at Republican majorities.

Harris’ visit came after ProPublica reported that two women in the state died after not receiving proper medical treatment for complications from taking abortion pills to end their pregnancies. Democrats argue that such deaths were a predictable result of restrictive laws.

Harris has been outspoken about abortion rights since the Supreme Court decision more than two years ago.

The vice president also said last month that she supports ending the Senate filibuster to pass abortion rights protections, as legislation to protect abortion access at the federal level has been blocked from advancing since the repeal of Roe V Wade .

Democrats have been trying to pass legislation restoring anti-abortion protections provided in Roe v. Wade since the Supreme Court overturned the landmark decision in 2022.

However, Democrats need 60 votes to overcome the filibuster in the Senate, but they only have a 51-seat majority.