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.
-
What led to Poland invoking NATO’s Article 4 and where could it lead?TODAY'S BIG QUESTION After a Russian drone blitz, Warsaw’s rare move to invoke the important NATO statute has potentially moved Europe closer to continent-wide warfare
-
Africa could become the next frontier for space programsThe Explainer China and the US are both working on space applications for Africa
-
Video games to curl up with this fall, including Ghost of Yotei and LEGO PartyThe Week Recommends Several highly anticipated video games are coming this fall
-
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
-
Brazil’s Bolsonaro sentenced to 27 years for coup attemptSpeed Read Bolsonaro was convicted of attempting to stay in power following his 2022 election loss
-
Former top FBI agents sue, claiming Trump purgeSpeed Read The agents alleged they were targeted by a “campaign of retribution”
-
Conservative influencer Charlie Kirk shot dead at 31Speed Read Kirk was holding a debate session at Utah Valley University
-
Judge lets Cook stay at Fed while appealing ousterSpeed Read Trump had attempted to fire Cook over allegations of mortgage fraud
-
South Korea to fetch workers detained in Georgia raidSpeed Read More than 300 South Korean workers detained in an immigration raid at a Hyundai plant will be released
-
Costco is at the center of an abortion debateTalking Points The decision to no longer stock the abortion pill came following a pressure campaign by conservatives
