U.S. Abortion Laws by State

Hostile

Georgia

Georgia is enforcing a 6-week abortion ban, which the Georgia Supreme Court has allowed to remain in effect although the Superior Court of Fulton County permanently enjoined the ban as unconstitutional.

State Legal Details

Bans in Effect

  • Gestational Ban, 22-week LMP
  • Gestational Ban, 6-week LMP
  • Method Ban

Bans Enjoined

  • Pre-Roe Ban

Restrictions in Effect

  • Biased Counseling Requirement
  • Fetal Personhood
  • Parental Involvement, Parental Consent Requirement
  • TRAP requirements: Providers, Admitting Privilege Requirement
  • Waiting Period Requirement

Restrictions

Georgia is enforcing a 6-week abortion ban.1 On September 30, 2024, a state district court found that the Georgia Constitution prohibits political interference with an individual’s abortion decision before viability and issued a permanent injunction.2 The Georgia Supreme Court stayed the permanent injunction pending the state’s appeal allowing the ban to remain in effect.3 On February 20, 2025, the state supreme court vacated the permanent injunction and remanded the case to the trial court.4 Previously, the state supreme court permitted the ban to remain in effect.5

Previously, Georgia law generally prohibited abortion at twenty weeks post-fertilization; however, abortion care is allowed between 6 and 20 weeks post-fertilization if the pregnancy was the result of rape or incest.6 State law asserts that “natural person” includes an “unborn child”. 7 It also prohibits D&X abortion procedures.8 Pregnant people who seek abortion care must undergo a mandatory twenty-four-hour waiting period and biased counseling.9 Georgia also limits public funding for,10 and private insurance coverage of, abortion.11 Georgia law generally requires that a parent or legal guardian be notified about a minor’s abortion;12 alternatively a judge can approve a minor’s petition without parental notification.13

Georgia requires abortion providers to submit reports to the state.14 State law restricts the provision of abortion care to licensed physicians.15 Providers who violate Georgia’s abortion restrictions may face civil and criminal penalties.16

State Protections

A Georgia court has held that a ban on abortion at approximately 6-weeks violates the right to liberty and privacy under the Georgia constitution.17 In 2022, the city of Atlanta passed a resolution to provide $300,000 to the National Network of Abortion Funds to provide reproductive health care services.18

Post-Roe Prohibitions

The Supreme Court invalidated certain provisions of the state’s pre-Roe ban.19

Conclusion

Now that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe, Georgia is enforcing a 6-week abortion ban, which the Georgia Supreme Court has allowed to remain in effect although the Superior Court of Fulton County permanently enjoined the ban as unconstitutional.

  1. Ga. Code Ann. u00a7 16-12-141. ↩︎
  2. SisterSong Women of Color Reprod. Just. Collective v. State of Georgia, No. 2022-CV-367796 (Sup. Ct. Fulton Cnty. Sept. 30, 2024) (declaring sections 4 and 11 of the LIFE Act unconstitutional and enjoining the state from enforcing it). ↩︎
  3. SisterSong Women of Color Reprod. Just. Collective v. State of Georgia, No. 2022-CV-367796 (Ga. Oct. 7, 2024). ↩︎
  4. The state supreme court vacated the permanent injunction and remanded the case to the trial court following a change in state law about third party standing. The trial court has been instructed to reconsider the plaintiffsu2019 standing in light of a recent state supreme court case, State of Georgia v. SisterSong Women of Color Reprod. Just. Collective, Case No. S25A0300 (Ga. Feb. 20, 2025). ↩︎
  5. State of Georgia v. SisterSong Women of Color Reprod. Just. Collective, 894 S.E.2d 1 (Ga. 2023). ↩︎
  6. GA. CODE ANN. u00a7 16-12-141(b)(2). ↩︎
  7. GA. CODE ANN. u00a7 1-2-1, permanently enjoined by SisterSong Women of Color Reprod. Just. Collective v. Kemp, 472 F. Supp. 3d 1297 (N.D. Ga. 2020); rev’d and vacated, SisterSong Women of Color Reprod. Just. Collective v. Kemp, 40 F.4th 1320 (11th Cir. 2022) ↩︎
  8. GA. CODE ANN. u00a7 16-12-144(b). ↩︎
  9. Id. u00a7 31-9A-3. ↩︎
  10. Ga. Depu2019t of Cmty. Health, Div. of Medicaid, Policies and Procedures for Hospital Services, u00a7 911 (2016), available at https://gshp.wildapricot.org/resources/Documents/procedures_hospital.pdf; Ga. Code Ann. u00a7 45-18-4 ↩︎
  11. GA. CODE ANN. u00a7 33-24-59.17(a). ↩︎
  12. Id. u00a7 15-11-682. ↩︎
  13. Id. u00a7 15-11-684(c). ↩︎
  14. Id. u00a7u00a7 16-12-141.1, 31-10-19. ↩︎
  15. Id. u00a7 16-12-141(e)(2). ↩︎
  16. See, e.g., id. u00a7u00a7 16-12-141.1(f), 16-12-143. ↩︎
  17. See supra note 2. ↩︎
  18. 22-R-3981, 2022 Council, Reg. Sess. (Atlanta 2022). ↩︎
  19. Doe v. Bolton, 410 U.S. 179, 199-200, 93 S. Ct. 739, 751-2 (1973). But see 1973 Ga. Laws 635-38 and Ga. Code Ann. u00a7 16-12-140, formerly Ga. Code Ann. u00a7 26-1201. ↩︎