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ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - The Supreme Court of Georgia has reinstated the state’s ban on abortions that was struck down recently by a lower court.

On Monday, the court reinstated the law that was passed more than two years ago by the Georgia General Assembly, ruling the ban could remain in place while it considers the state’s appeal to a Sept. 30, 2024, ruling that found the law unconstitutional.

Read the ruling below:

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney had struck down Georgia’s ban on abortions, allowing the procedure to once again be performed after a doctor detects a fetal heartbeat. Attorney General Chris Carr appealed the ruling.

In his ruling, McBurney wrote “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.

“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,” McBurney wrote.

“Elected officials in our state continue their disrespect of Georgia women, treating our bodies as state-owned property,” said Andrea Young, executive director of the ACLU of Georgia. “We will persist, using all lawful means to restore dignity, full citizenship and a right to privacy for Georgia’s women.”

The judge’s decision rolled back abortion limits in Georgia to a prior law allowing abortions until viability, roughly 22 to 24 weeks into a pregnancy.

The issue of abortion and reproductive rights is a crucial issue in Georgia’s electoral and social scenes. Gov. Brian Kemp and the Republican Party continue to advocate for abortion restrictions, while Vice President Kamala Harris has made the issue central to her historic Democratic presidential campaign.

Last year, the Georgia Supreme Court overturned a lower court’s ruling that halted the state’s controversial ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, and sent the case back to Fulton County Superior Court to consider the merits of the other challenges brought by the law’s opponents.

That ruling upheld Georgia’s LIFE Act, which is also known as the “heartbeat bill,” which prohibits abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected, usually at around a pregnancy’s six-week mark. The Georgia Supreme Court’s ruling focused on whether the legislation is viable since it was passed in 2019 when Roe v. Wade was still in effect and guaranteed a federal right to abortion.

In a statement, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr said: “We commend the Court for granting our request to allow the LIFE Act to once again take effect, and we will continue to defend the laws and the Constitution of the State of Georgia.”

>> Read Georgia’s abortion law here.

Georgia’s law was passed by state lawmakers and signed by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp in 2019 but had been blocked from taking effect until the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, which had protected the right to an abortion for nearly 50 years. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allowed Georgia to begin enforcing its abortion law just over three weeks after the high court’s decision in June 2022.

A legal consideration known as “void ab initio” dictates lawmakers can’t pass an unconstitutional law, knowingly or unknowingly, even if it later becomes constitutional. That’s the consideration McBurney used to put a hold on the ban almost a year ago. The state Supreme Court reinstated the ban while the case worked its way through the legal system.

The opponents of Georgia’s heartbeat bill in the lawsuit is an organization of pro-choice advocates known as Sistersong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Coalition.

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