ATLANTA — Georgia can no longer enforce its ban on abortion that took effect earlier this year, a Fulton County judge said Tuesday, allowing the procedure to be performed again in the state even if a doctor detects fetal cardiac activity.
Fulton County Superior Judge Robert McBurney issued an order Tuesday that said abortions must be regulated as they were before Georgia’s 2019 law took effect in July — meaning the procedure is again allowed up until about 22 weeks of pregnancy. The state will appeal the ruling.
Attorneys for the abortion rights activists and providers last month argued that when the law passed in 2019, Roe v. Wade was the law of the land and state law does not allow the Legislature to enact statutes that violate the law. McBurney agreed.
