Fulton Superior Judge Robert McBurney of the Georgia Fifth Superior Court District Atlanta Circuit ruled on Monday that the ban on abortions six weeks into pregnancy is unconstitutional.

Judge McBurney overturned Georgia’s 2019 Living Infants Fairness and Equality (LIFE) Act, which was passed in April of 2019 and barred abortions past six weeks. Exceptions existed where a pregnancy was deemed “medically futile” as defined in Code Section 31-9B-1 to avoid the death or injury of a pregnant woman or in cases of rape or incest where a police report was filed. The Living Infants Fairness and Equality (LIFE) Act was later ruled to be unconstitutional in 2020 by Judge Steve C. Jones in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, but this was later reversed after Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022 by the US Supreme Court.

Judge McBurney said, “The authors of our Constitutions, state and federal, entrusted to future generations a charter protecting the right of all persons to enjoy liberty as we learn its meaning.” He continued, stating that through “the liberty of privacy,” women should have the right to choose, “it is a woman’s right to make decisions about her body and her health remains private and protected,” and that the choice should not be up to a judge or legislator. He said the rights are not unlimited as once a fetus reaches viability, then “society may intervene” and that the 2019 Act’s exceptions were subject to vagueness.

Roe v. Wade removed the federal constitutional rights to abortion and allowed for American states to ban them. 13 states currently have a total abortion ban, prohibiting abortions at all trimesters of pregnancy, and Georgia is one of eight states that prohibits abortion before 18 weeks, banning the procedure within the first six weeks of pregnancy. However, Judge McBurney’s ruling will allow people to have abortions for up to 22 weeks. Georgia’s abortion services will resume past the six weeks, and Judge McBurney’s ruling may open up access to abortions throughout the South. Bans on abortion have affected Southern US due to restrictive abortion policies and have also impacted LGBTQ individuals, young people, women of color, and those with lower incomes.