While Georgia lawmakers seek to restore the state’s six-week abortion ban struck down earlier this week, some abortion clinics are reporting increased activity as women seek help during what some view as a temporary reprieve in the state law. 

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney on Monday struck down Georgia’s abortion ban, ruling it unconstitutional, thus allowing the state to resume abortions up until about 22 weeks of pregnancy.

State Attorney General Chris Carr quickly countered, filing an “emergency petition” Wednesday, asking the Georgia Supreme Court to “stay or pause” the trial court ruling until the court could consider the state’s appeal. The Supreme Court received Carr’s request but had not made a decision as of Friday midafternoon, Supreme Court spokesperson Kathleen Joyner told State Affairs.

The ruling has reignited debate among state lawmakers and civil liberties and reproductive rights advocates.

“What this means for Georgians is that there is some relief when it comes to basic civil liberties and fundamental rights. For women, that means having the right to your own bodily autonomy,” Aklima Khondoker, Atlanta-based chief of programs and strategy at public policy institute Demos, told State Affairs. 

Republicans are pushing back against the ruling.

“Our heartbeat legislation has exceptions in the law,” state Rep. Lauren Daniel, R-Locust Grove, told Fox 5 Atlanta. “It provides an exception for the life of a mother, for rape and incest, and for medically futile pregnancies. When you hear the rhetoric that those things don’t exist in our law, it is a lie.” 

Since Monday’s ruling, Feminist Women’s Health Center has seen a “significant increase in folks requesting general information and seeking to make appointments [for abortions],” at its North Atlanta clinic, spokesperson A.C. Coquillas told State Affairs. 

Requests are coming from Georgians and from people from neighboring states, Coquillas added. 

This latest salvo in Georgia’s three-year fight over its abortion law comes just weeks after news reports revealed the deaths of Amber Thurman and Candi Miller, two Georgia women who were unable to get an abortion due to the state’s six-week ban. Thurman was a 28-year-old mother who got abortion pills in North Carolina but died after she was unable to get necessary treatment in Georgia after having an incomplete abortion. Like Thurman, Miller used abortion pills that led to an incomplete abortion. She, too, died because she couldn’t get proper treatment to fully expel the pregnancy. Both deaths were preventable, experts said.

The women’s deaths underscore how dangerous it is for pregnant women – especially Black women — in the Peach State. 

Georgia has the worst maternal mortality rate of any state in America, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights. Black women are 3.3 times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than white women. The report noted that health experts in the state said more than half of the pregnancy-related deaths in the state are preventable.

One advocate for women’s reproductive rights said the two deaths likely played a role in Monday’s ruling.

“We have the national spotlight on us because of these two Black women who lost their lives,” Monica Simpson, executive director of SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, told State Affairs. “Any person who really cares about the lives of Georgians would have done everything that they could with the power they have to expand access.”

Simpson said she’s also hearing from clinics around the state.

“We’re hearing from our partners that they are definitely seeing those numbers

trickle in,” she said. “They definitely have people coming through the doors.”

SisterSong, along with a group of doctors and abortion providers, sued Georgia in 2019 for trying to reduce the time allowed to seek abortions. The case has been through several rounds of legal motions over the years.

Beyond Georgia, abortion has become a key issue this election season, especially among young people.

“Bodily autonomy issues, in general, bring young people to the polls,” Simpson said. “They care about being able to make their own decisions.” 

Just this week in a post on X promoting her upcoming memoir, former first lady Melania Trump defended abortion rights, a stand that’s in stark contrast to that of her husband, former President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly taken credit for dismantling Roe v. Wade.

Reproductive rights have been a source of contentious legal entanglements for states since June 24, 2022, when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a nearly 50-year-old landmark ruling that made abortion a constitutional right.

Georgia lawmakers have a big decision to make, Simpson said.

“Do they want to continue to be a state where they deny and restrict access to people, which results in deaths,” she asked, “or [do] they actually want to expand health care in a way that gives people what they need to live right?”

ABORTION LAWS IN NEIGHBORING STATES:

Alabama: Abortion is illegal except when the mother’s life is in danger. There are no exceptions for rape or incest. 

Florida: Abortion is legal until six weeks. There are exceptions for conditions such as ectopic pregnancies.

North Carolina: Bans abortions after 12 weeks and six days.

South Carolina: Bans abortions at six weeks, when a fetal heartbeat is detected.

Tennessee: Abortion is banned at all stages of pregnancy, with limited exceptions, such as medical emergencies, molar and ectopic pregnancies and miscarriages.

Virginia: Abortion is legal until the end of the second trimester.

Source: Staff research

Read these related stories:

Living behind the eight ball: Rural Georgians fight long health care odds

Celebration, challenges mark Georgia’s post-Roe world

Have questions, comments or tips? Contact Tammy Joyner on X @lvjoyner or at [email protected].

Know the most important news affecting Georgia

Get our free weekly newsletter that covers government, policy and politics that impact your everyday life—in 5 minutes or less.

Sign Up