Georgia Restores Abortion Ban After Judge’s “Handmaid’s Tale” Warning
In an unfortunate back and forth, the Georgia Supreme Court has reinstated a law banning abortion after six weeks of pregnancy. The ban will remain in place as the high court reviews the state’s appeal against a lower court ruling striking the law.
The Living Infants Fairness and Equality Act, or the LIFE Act, will take effect again at 5 p.m. Monday, making abortion illegal after six weeks of pregnancy, before many people know they are pregnant.
This decision comes just one week after a Fulton County Superior Judge overturned the Georgia law, arguing that it was unconstitutional and issuing a dire warning on how the ban could set up a dystopian world similar to the one portrayed in The Handmaid’s Tale.
Last week, Judge Robert McBurney wrote that: “It is not for a legislator, a judge, or a Commander from The Handmaid’s Tale to tell these women what to do with their bodies during this period when the fetus cannot survive outside the womb any more so than society could—or should—force them to serve as a human tissue bank or to give up a kidney for the benefit of another.”
The lower judge’s ruling allowed abortion until 22 weeks, as was legal before the reversal of Roe v. Wade in 2022, giving clinics a chance to expand their abortion options for the past week.
“We know that several providers in Georgia were able to resume abortion care really quickly,” Brittany Fonteno, the president and chief executive of the National Abortion Federation, told The New York Times. “It speaks to the resilience of the providers in Georgia. They were really overwhelmed by the amount of people who immediately came to them for care.”
The constant back and forth in the courts is sure to fuel confusion in the state about what is and isn’t legal.
Meanwhile, JD Vance is playing dumb about reproductive rights in Georgia, saying he doesn’t know which side he is on.
Q: Do you support Georgia’s 6-week abortion ban?
— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) October 7, 2024
Vance: I don’t know pic.twitter.com/9dOqWgH4q7