Georgia Court Rules State Constitution Protects Abortion, Blocks Six-Week Ban

09.30.2024 (PRESS RELEASE) – The Superior Court of Fulton County issued a ruling today finding that the Georgia Constitution prohibits political interference with an individual’s abortion decision before viability. Based on that ruling, the court permanently enjoined H.B. 481 — a ban on abortion beginning at approximately six weeks of pregnancy — allowing people to once again access abortion care in the state beyond the earliest weeks of pregnancy.

The Georgia attorney general, Chris Carr, can choose to ask the state Supreme Court to block today’s ruling and reinstate the ban in the coming days. If he does so, abortion providers and advocates will fight to preserve this ruling and to ensure every Georgian can make the personal medical decisions that are best for their health, their futures, and their families.

Today’s ruling comes after the Georgia Supreme Court issued a decision in this case in October 2023 addressing a different question: whether H.B. 481 was void from the start under a special provision of the Georgia Constitution because it violated the federal Constitution at the time of its enactment in 2019, when Roe v. Wade was in place. Holding that the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs decision overruling Roe effectively erased from history the half-century of federal constitutional decisions protecting a fundamental right to abortion, the Georgia Supreme Court allowed H.B. 481 to remain in place. The Supreme Court then sent the case back to the trial court to rule in the first instance on the plaintiffs’ other claims that the ban violates the Georgia Constitution’s rights to privacy and equal protection.

In addition to striking down the six-week abortion ban, today’s decision finds that another provision of the law giving district attorneys broad access to the medical records of abortion patients is a violation of Georgians’ constitutional right to privacy.

Below are statements from plaintiffs and litigators:

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

“Today’s win was hard-fought and is a significant step in the right direction towards achieving Reproductive Justice in Georgia. We are encouraged that a Georgia court has ruled for bodily autonomy. At the same time, we can’t forget that every day the ban has been in place has been a day too long—and we have felt the dire consequences with the devastating and preventable deaths of Amber Nicole Thurman and Candi Miller. For years, Black women have sounded the alarm that abortion bans are deadly. While true justice would mean Amber and Candi were still with us today, we will continue to demand accountability to ensure that their lives—and the lives of others who we have yet to learn of—were not lost in vain. Black women have remained at the forefront of the battle for our reproductive freedom and today’s victory is historic, powerful, and just the beginning. We know that the fight continues as anti-abortion white supremacists will stop at nothing to control our bodies and attack our liberation. We are ready for them and will never back down until we achieve Reproductive Justice: the human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, the human right to have children, or not, and raise them in safe and sustainable communities.”

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

“We are cautiously encouraged that the court has recognized every Georgian’s right to abortion and privacy in health care, and Feminist Women’s Health Center is ready to expand our abortion services immediately in accordance with this law. But we also know that Georgians were facing significant barriers to care before Georgia’s 6-week ban went into effect. The fact is that the status quo we were under even before the Dobbs decision overturned of Roe v. Wade was not expansive enough to meet the needs of low-income folks, Black people, and communities of color who are priced and pushed out of care due to legacies of systemic racism, social stigma, and economic inaccessibility. We must continue our advocacy beyond the courts and address these deeper barriers to care to truly achieve reproductive freedom for all. To that end, Feminist Women’s Health Center will continue working within and outside the court system to build a world where abortion is affordable, widely available, and stigma-free.”

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

“We are relieved that the trial court listened to patients, advocates, medical experts, and health care providers who have detailed the devastating harm this abortion ban has had across Georgia and how it violates their constitutionally-protected right to privacy. While we celebrate this ruling, we know the fight is not over. Gov. Kemp and Attorney General Carr have proven time and again that they will stop at nothing to ensure their constituents cannot access basic health care in their communities. As anti-abortion lawmakers work to further limit access, Planned Parenthood Southeast and its partners remain committed to fighting for the rights of all Georgians to make their own decisions about their lives.”

Statement from Alice Wang, staff attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights:

“The Superior Court of Fulton County has rightfully struck down Georgia’s six-week abortion ban as a flagrant violation of Georgia’s longstanding and robust right to privacy, restoring access to abortion at a time when too many have been prevented from accessing this critical health care and from deciding what is best for their bodies, health, and family lives. For too long, the ban has caused a public health crisis, as evidenced by the testimony Plaintiffs presented at trial and devastating stories recently reported about the preventable deaths of Candi Miller and Amber Nicole Thurman. Today’s ruling is a step toward ensuring that people can access and clinicians can provide critical health care without fear of criminalization or stigma. This victory demonstrates that when courts faithfully apply constitutional protections for bodily autonomy, laws that restrict access to abortion and force people to continue pregnancies against their will cannot stand.”

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

“Following days of testimony from Georgia doctors, public health experts, and other devoted care providers, the trial court rightly found that Gov. Kemp’s abortion ban betrays Georgians’ constitutional freedoms and is causing devastating harm. If Gov. Kemp and Attorney General Carr try to reinstate this cruel ban again, they will be doing so knowing full well that this law is preventing physicians from treating sick patients, exacerbating the maternal mortality crisis for Black women, forcing Georgians to carry pregnancies that will tether them to poverty and abuse, and making it harder for Georgia’s universities and hospitals to attract top doctors. This decision comes in the wake of the heartbreaking reporting that Candi Miller and Amber Nicole Thurman, both Black women and both mothers, are not alive today because Georgia’s abortion ban prevented them from accessing the healthcare they needed. To Amber and Candi’s families, and to everyone who has suffered needless medical risk and pain because of this ban, or been denied the dignity of making your own decisions for your health, family, and future: know that you are seen, and that we will never stop fighting for you.”

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

“We are grateful for today’s decision, which restores the rights of Georgia’s women to make decisions about their healthcare and their families without dangerous interference by the government. As the court recognized, our State Constitution does not permit the government to force the women of Georgia to carry pregnancies to term against their wishes and against their doctors’ advice. This is a just and a wise decision, and we urge the Governor not to fight it.”

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 same trial court 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 let the ban take effect. 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.

A copy of this release can be found here.

An overview of the case can be found here.

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CONTACTS:

ACLU: [email protected]

ACLU of Georgia: [email protected]

CRR: [email protected]

PPFA: [email protected]

PPSE: [email protected]

SisterSong: [email protected]

FWHC: [email protected]