For nearly a year, three of Georgia’s neighboring states had less restrictive abortion laws.
In July, a federal appeals court allowed Georgia’s law that passed in 2019 to take effect. It bans most abortions once a doctor can detect fetal cardiac activity, typically about six weeks into a pregnancy and before many know they are pregnant. On Thursday, South Carolina’s governor signed a similar law.
For the past 10 months, Georgians with the money and ability to travel have gone to neighboring states that have allowed abortions later in pregnancy. But within the past six weeks, South Carolina, Florida and North Carolina have enacted laws that are similar to Georgia’s. Abortion is banned at all stages of pregnancy in Alabama and Tennessee.
