Georgia’s Highest Court Upholds the Six-week Cutoff for Abortions

The state’s restriction on abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy was reinstated by the Georgia Supreme Court on Wednesday. The high court suspended a lower court decision striking down the prohibition in a one-page order while it thought about an appeal. Providers of abortions who continued conducting the procedure after six weeks following the lower court verdict will once more be required to cease.

According to the order, the decision got the support of seven of the nine justices. It stated that one was eliminated and another did not take part. On November 15, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney declared that the state’s abortion restriction was unconstitutional because, at the time it was enacted in 2019, Roe v. Wade precedent from the U.S. Supreme Court and another decision permitted abortions well past six weeks.

The ruling instantly barred the state’s abortion ban from being put into effect. After six weeks, abortion clinics started conducting the operation again, though some claimed they were moving slowly out of fear that the prohibition may be rapidly lifted.

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The decision was appealed to the state Supreme Court by the office of the state attorney general. Additionally, it requested that the verdict be suspended while the appeal was being considered by the top court. After Roe v. Wade was overturned by the US Supreme Court, Georgia’s prohibition went into effect in July. Once a “detectable human heartbeat” was detected, the majority of abortions were forbidden.

Around six weeks into a pregnancy, ultrasonography can detect cardiac activity in cells within an embryo that will eventually develop into the heart. That indicates that the majority of abortions in Georgia were essentially outlawed at a time before most women were aware of their pregnancies.