What happened
The Georgia Supreme Court voted 6-1 Monday to reinstate a restrictive abortion law, a week after a lower court judge struck down the 2019 law as a violation of the state constitution's privacy provisions. The six-week ban, passed in 2019 and in force since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade in 2022, will stay in effect as state Attorney General Chris Carr (R) appeals.
Who said what
Fulton County Judge Robert McBurney's Sept. 30 ruling gave "women in the state and across the South a short window" to obtain an abortion up to 22 weeks, The New York Times said. "Many women do not even realize they are pregnant at six weeks."
In his partial dissent, Justice John Ellington said Carr's office had failed to "show any reason for urgency" and the law should have remained on hold during the appeal. "Fundamentally, the state should not be in the business of enforcing laws that have been determined to violate fundamental rights guaranteed to millions of individuals under the Georgia Constitution," he said. Carr commended the ruling and said he would "continue to defend the laws and the Constitution of the State of Georgia."
What next?
Abortion is a "core issue ahead of November's elections as voters weigh candidates and abortion-related ballot measures," The Washington Post said. Attention to reproductive rights has been "particularly intense" in Georgia, a key battleground state, since ProPublica reported last month that two Georgia women, Amber Nicole Thurman and Candi Miller, died of abortion-related complications in the months after the ban took effect.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
7 mountain hotels perfect for a tranquil autumn or winter escapeThe Week Recommends Get (altitude) high and unwind
-
‘Deskilling’: a dangerous side effect of AI useThe explainer Workers are increasingly reliant on the new technology
-
The biggest sports betting scandals in historyIn Depth The recent indictments of professional athletes were the latest in a long line of scandals
-
SNAP aid uncertain amid court rulings, politicsSpeed Read Funding for additional SNAP benefits ran out over the weekend
-
Pentagon unable to name boat strike casualtiesSpeed Read The Pentagon has so far acknowledged 14 strikes
-
Trump limits refugees mostly to white South AfricansSpeed Read The administration is capping the number of refugees at 7,500
-
Dutch center-left rises in election as far-right fallsSpeed Read The country’s other parties have ruled against forming a coalition
-
Judge rules US attorney ‘unlawfully serving’Speed Read Bill Essayli had been serving in the role without Senate confirmation
-
Trump ends Asia trip with Xi meeting, nuke threatSpeed Read Trump had spent the last six days in Asia
-
Nadine Menendez gets 4.5 years in bribery caseSpeed Read Menendez's husband was previously sentenced to 11 years in prison
-
Koreans detained in US Hyundai raid return homeSpeed Read Over 300 Koreans were detained at the plant last week
