Georgia Supreme Court Reinstates Six-Week Abortion Ban

ATLANTA — The Supreme Court of Georgia issued a ruling today staying a trial court decision striking down H.B. 481, a ban on abortion after approximately six weeks of pregnancy — before many people even know they’re pregnant. The ruling goes into effect at 5 p.m. today, reinstating Georgia’s abortion ban just one week after a lower court ruling allowed abortion clinics to resume abortion care beyond the earliest weeks of pregnancy. The ban will remain in effect indefinitely while the state’s appeal proceeds in the Georgia Supreme Court. 

The Supreme Court left in place for now the trial court's ruling blocking a separate provision of the law giving state prosecutors broad access to the medical records of abortion patients absent any due process protections (like notice to the patient or a subpoena). This part of the ruling is unrelated to the ban itself.

Last week, the Superior Court of Fulton County found that the Georgia Constitution prohibits political interference with an individual’s abortion decision before viability, and that forced pregnancy imposes severe harms on Georgians’ health, lives, and families. Nevertheless, Georgia Attorney General Christopher Carr quickly appealed the Superior Court ruling to the Georgia Supreme Court and asked the court to immediately reinstate the ban, claiming that Georgia patients “will not suffer much harm” if they are again prevented from obtaining this essential health care.

Since going into effect two years ago, H.B. 481 has denied Georgians the freedom to make personal medical decisions during pregnancy and forced patients into life-threatening situations. Last month, Georgia’s expert Maternal Mortality Review Committee determined that the deaths of two Black women in 2022 — Amber Nicole Thurman and Candi Miller — were “preventable” but that the patients were not able to access the urgent medical care they needed due to confusion and fear of criminal penalties for violating the state’s abortion ban.

Below are statements from plaintiffs and litigators:

Statement from Monica Simpson, executive director, SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective: 

“Today, the Georgia Supreme Court sided with anti-abortion extremists. Every minute this harmful six-week abortion ban is in place, Georgians suffer. Denying our community members the lifesaving care they deserve jeopardizes their lives, safety, and health—all for the sake of power and control over our bodies. This decision is unconscionable, especially after the loss of Amber Nicole Thurman and Candi Miller, two Black women who would be here today had this ban not been in place. For years, Black women have sounded the alarm about the dangers of abortion bans. With these devastating losses, extremists can no longer deny this fatal reality. This ban is rooted in white supremacy and intensifies an already dire situation in Georgia, where Black women are more than twice as likely to die from pregnancy complications compared to white women, largely due to the absence of Medicaid expansion, a shortage of OBGYNs and a healthcare system rife with inequities since its founding. Despite all evidence that this ban is killing us, the Court sided with those more interested in limiting our access to care than seeing us live and thrive. The right to bodily autonomy transcends partisanship; it’s a human right that every Georgian deserves. We still believe in a Georgia where we all have the right to decide whether or not to have children and raise those children in safe, sustainable communities. The only way to get there is to trust those impacted the most–Black women. We’ve been the backbone and blueprint of the Reproductive Justice movement for decades. Now, we need everyone to turn their pain into action and vote with these issues in mind this November.”

Statement from Kwajelyn Jackson, executive director of Feminist Women’s Health Center:

“It is cruel that our patients’ ability to access the reproductive health care they need has been taken away yet again. Once again, we are being forced to turn away those in need of abortion care beyond six weeks of pregnancy and deny them care that we are fully capable of providing to change their lives. This ban has wreaked havoc on Georgians’ lives, and our patients deserve better. The state of Georgia has chosen to subject our community to those devastating harms once again, even in light of the deadly consequences we have already witnessed. We will keep fighting to protect our patients, their health, their rights, and their dignity — in the clinic, in the Capitol, in the courts, and in the community.”

Statement from Jaylen Black, vice president of communications and marketing of Planned Parenthood Southeast:

“Today’s ruling is an egregious example of how far anti-abortion lawmakers and judges will go to strip Georgians of their fundamental rights. As our state and region have been battered by Hurricane Helene and chemically-polluted air quality, they’re focused on causing more harm rather than prioritizing time-sensitive recovery efforts. At every turn, they choose to put their own agendas above our health and well-being. They know how dangerous this ban is – it resulted in the devastating, preventable deaths of Amber Thurman and Candi Miller and will continue to harm Georgians as long as it is in effect. We will continue to fight for every person in Georgia and the Southeast to make their own decisions about their own lives, including protecting their right to abortion care.”

Statement from Julia Kaye, senior staff attorney with the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project:

“Gov. Kemp and Attorney General Carr told the state Supreme Court that reinstating an abortion ban that is literally killing Georgia women would not cause ‘much harm,’ and the state Supreme Court apparently believed that cruel lie. Seeing state politicians show such little empathy or respect for Georgians’ health and lives only doubles our resolve to keep fighting until every person has the freedom to make personal medical decisions during pregnancy and the power to chart the course of their own lives.”

Statement from Andrea Young, executive director, ACLU of Georgia:

“Elected officials in our state continue their disrespect of Georgia women, treating our bodies as state-owned property. We will persist, using all lawful means to restore dignity, full citizenship and a right to privacy for Georgia's women.”

Statement from Alice Wang, staff attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights:
“This ban has already killed multiple women, as the state’s own maternal mortality review committee found last month. Yet Attorney General Carr rushed to court to reinstate this ban, ensuring more lives will be lost. This ruling will surely be a death sentence for some, and we won’t back down from fighting to ensure every Georgian’s right to decide what is best for their bodies, health, and family lives.”

The state court challenge — filed on July 26, 2022, just days after a federal appeals court allowed Georgia’s six-week ban to take effect for the first time since it was signed into law by Gov. Brian Kemp in 2019 — asserts that (1) the Georgia Constitution’s especially strong protection for the fundamental right to privacy prohibits political interference with an individual’s deeply personal and medically consequential decision whether to continue or terminate a pregnancy; and (2) Georgia’s six-week ban was void from the start under the Georgia Constitution because it clearly violated federal constitutional precedent when enacted in 2019. The plaintiffs also challenged a separate provision of the law giving state prosecutors broad access to the medical records of abortion patients without any due process protections.

The Superior Court of Fulton County previously granted abortion providers’ and advocates’ request to block the law, ruling on Nov. 15, 2022, that Georgia’s abortion ban was void from the start, but not yet addressing the other state constitutional claims. One week later, the Georgia Supreme Court stayed the trial court order and reinstated the ban. In March 2023, the Court heard oral arguments on the state’s appeal of the lower court’s ruling that the ban was void from inception, ultimately siding with the state on that question in October 2023.

This case was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Georgia, the Center for Reproductive Rights, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and Georgia-based law firms Caplan Cobb and Bondurant Mixson & Elmore on behalf of SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, Feminist Women’s Health Center, Planned Parenthood Southeast, Inc., Atlanta Comprehensive Wellness Clinic, Atlanta Women’s Medical Center, FemHealth USA d/b/a carafem, Summit Medical Associates, P.C., Carrie Cwiak, M.D., M.P.H., Lisa Haddad, M.D., M.S., M.P.H., Eva Lathrop, M.D., M.P.H., and Medical Students for Choice.

A copy of the order issued today can be found here.

An overview of the case can be found here. 

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