Judge Robert C. McBurney just struck down Georgia's six-week abortion law. It's become rare to see Republican-appointed judges do the right thing. From Anthony Michael Kreis: "McBurney writes that under the Georgia Constitution, strict scrutiny applies to abortion regulations. He effectively describes Georgia abortion law as treating women like "collectively owned community property." ... "Judge McBurney says there is an equal protection problem for women who face mental health harms from carrying a pregnancy to term versus those who get an exception in the six-week ban."
!!!!! More details below. Thanks for posting, OP!
"A Georgia judge has struck down the state’s six-week abortion ban, declaring it unconstitutional.
In a ruling issued on Monday, Judge Robert McBurney said Georgia’s Living Infants Fairness and Equality Act, or LIFE Act, infringes on a woman’s state constitutional rights.
The legal challenge was brought by SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Collective against the state of Georgia.
“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. An arbitrary six-week ban on (post-embryonic cardiac activity pregnancy) terminations is inconsistent with these rights and the proper balance that a viability rule establishes between a woman’s rights of liberty and privacy and society’s interest in protecting and caring for unborn infants,” McBurney wrote.
When originally signed into law, the LIFE Act criminalized most abortions after an embryo generates detectable cardiac activity, typically around six weeks into a pregnancy.
When the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 and ended a national right to abortion, it opened the door for state bans. Fourteen states now bar abortion at all stages of pregnancy, with some exceptions. Georgia was one of four where the bans kick in after about six weeks of pregnancy – which is often before women realize they’re pregnant.
The impact of bans has been felt deeply in the South because many people have to travel hundreds of miles to states where abortion procedures can be obtained legally.
The new Georgia ruling, if it stands, could open up new avenues to access abortion not only for residents of the state, but for people in nearby states who currently face long trips to places like North Carolina or Illinois."
-via CNN, September 30, 2024