Fulton Superior Court overturns 'heartbeat bill' banning most abortions in Georgia

A Fulton County Superior Court judge on Tuesday ruled that Georgia's law banning most abortions after six weeks is illegal as the law was unconstitutional at the time it was passed. The ruling takes immediate effect statewide.

Judge Robert C.I. McBurney wrote that according to precedent, a law that was unconstitutional when it was passed remains unconstitutional. That applies to Georgia's 2019 abortion bill, known as the LIFE Act, or the "heartbeat bill," colloquially.

Read: ORDER ON MOTION FOR PARTIAL JUDGMENT ON THE PLEADINGS AND MOTION TO DISMISS

"At that time – the spring of 2019 – everywhere in America, including Georgia, it was unequivocally unconstitutional for governments – federal, state, or local – to ban abortions before viability," McBurney wrote.

The abortion bill, however, made abortion after six weeks a felony in most cases, even though such a law was clearly illegal and "such bans were banned," according to McBurney. Therefore the law was invalid from the beginning and remained so even when the Supreme Court ruled such restrictions to be constitutional.

Within hours, the office of the Attorney General in Georgia filed a brief notice of appeal, asking the Supreme Court of Georgia to review the ruling.

Read more: New lawsuit filed to block Georgia abortion law in state court after federal challenge lost

Also: State Court declines to block Georgia abortion ban in new challenge

“We have filed a notice of appeal and will continue to fulfill our duty to defend the laws of our state in court," wrote Kara Richardson, spokesperson for Attorney General Chris Carr, in an email.

The lawsuit was brought in July by organizations providing reproductive health services in Georgia, after the Federal 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the abortion law – blocked under the federal court decisions at the time it was passed – could finally be put into law after the Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade.

The lawsuit was brought by the ACLU of Georgia on behalf of several plaintiffs, including the lead plaintiff, SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective. Many of the plaintiffs are the same as those who sued in federal courts to stop the statewide ban.

The ruling follows a trial held in October.

“Today’s ruling recognizes that the legislature’s decision to take away abortion access across our state was in clear violation of the law,” Andrea Young, executive director of ACLU of Georgia, was quoted as saying in a news release. “We hope that the Georgia Supreme Court affirms that right, and in doing so affirms the long-standing Georgia rule that the legislature cannot pass laws that disregard our constitutional protections.”

The Superior Court of Fulton County declined to issue an injunction on the law while the case was litigated. The ruling Tuesday, however, makes it clear that the parts of the law limiting abortion were illegal at the time they were passed and are therefore illegal still.

"If the courts have spoken, clearly and directly, as to what the law is, as to what is and is not constitutional, legislatures and legislators are not at liberty to pass laws contrary to such pronouncements," the decision reads.

The ruling would not prevent the state legislature from passing a similar or even more restrictive ban under the new constitutional framework of Dobbs v. Jackson, the ruling earlier this year that overturned the constitutional right to an abortion. Still, the organizations that brought the suit celebrated the ruling as a win.

“After a long road, we are finally able to celebrate the end of an extreme abortion ban in our state,” Monica Simpson, executive director of Sister Song, was quoted as saying in a news release. “While we applaud the end of a ban steeped in white supremacy, it should not have existed in the first place."

Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, an anti-abortion organization, condemned the ruling.

"Shame on Judge McBurney for ignoring the will of the voters and imposing his own pro-abortion bias on Georgia instead," SBA President Marjorie Dannenfelser said in a news release.

This story will be updated as more information becomes available.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: GA's abortion restrictions overturned under state law