Federal Judge Strikes Down Restrictive GA Abortion Law

ATLANTA, GA — Georgia will appeal a Federal decision Monday that struck down the state’s restrictive anti-abortion law as unconstitutional.

District Judge Steven C. Jones wrote that House Bill 481, which bans most abortions after six week, would have violated women’s rights as established in Roe V. Wade, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Jones’s ruling answers a suit by the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia that argued that House Bill 481 was unconstitutional. Gov. Brian Kemp signed it into law in 2019.

The ruling turns back the clock to Georgia abortion laws enacted in 2012, which permit abortions through roughly the 22nd week of pregnancy.

“The district court blocked Georgia’s abortion ban because it violates over 50 years of Supreme Court precedent and fails to trust women to make their own personal decisions,” Sean J. Young, legal director of Georgia’s ACLU, said to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The law’s supporters see things differently. One supporter drew parallels between it and Black Lives Matter protests.

“In a time where our state is grappling with important conversations about innocent life unjustly taken, today’s ruling is a tragic and tone-deaf symbol that our culture still has much work to do to establish liberty and justice for all,” said Joshua Edmonds, executive director of the Georgia Life Alliance.

A spokesperson for Georgia’s attorney general told the Atlanta newspaper that the state would appeal the decision.

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