**Georgia Six-Week Abortion Ban Struck Down by Judge**

A judge in Georgia has invalidated the state's six-week abortion ban, ruling it unconstitutional and preventing its enforcement. In a detailed 26-page opinion, Judge Robert McBurney from Fulton County Superior Court ordered that abortion regulations must revert to the pre-2019 rules, before the introduction of the Life Act. This law, initially passed in 2019, was inoperative while Roe v. Wade stood but was activated following the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe in 2022. Up until that point, Georgia permitted abortions up to 22 weeks into pregnancy.

Judge McBurney’s decision allows abortions past six weeks to resume within the state. He emphasized that many women remain unaware of their pregnancies at such an early stage, stating, “For these women, the liberty of privacy means that they alone should choose whether they serve as human incubators for the five months leading up to viability.” He articulated that it was not the place of lawmakers, judges, or fictional characters from "The Handmaid's Tale" to dictate women’s bodily choices during this period when a fetus cannot survive outside the womb.

In a pointed footnote, McBurney highlighted a “subtext of involuntary servitude” in the debate, symbolized by the predominantly male legal teams supporting laws like the Life Act. These laws, he argued, primarily affect women, especially those who are poor, and in Georgia, this disproportionately includes black and brown women. McBurney noted that such laws effectively force these women to carry pregnancies to term against their will at the behest of the government.

This ruling follows a ProPublica report highlighting the tragic death of two women in Georgia who could not access legal abortions in the months succeeding the overturning of Roe v. Wade.