Abortion access is opening up in the South after Georgia Judge’s ruling

Abortion is a voting issue that's starting to show in the polls.

Floridians could get more access to abortion after a Georgia Judge knocked down the state’s six-week abortion ban and ruled it unconstitutional.

Abortion rights advocates say women are traveling hundreds of miles to access treatment after Florida’s own six-week abortion ban went into effect in May.

Georgia lawmakers passed the Living Infants and Fairness Equality (LIFE) Act, which criminalized most abortions starting at about six weeks. The law was allowed to go into effect after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

However, with Monday’s court ruling, Judge Robert McBurney struck down the law in Fulton County Superior Court.

“When a fetus growing inside a woman reaches viability, when society can assume care and responsibility for that separate life, then — and only then — may society intervene,” he wrote. “An arbitrary six-week ban on (post-embryonic cardiac activity pregnancy) terminations is inconsistent with these rights and the proper balance that a viability rule establishes between a woman’s rights of liberty and privacy and society’s interest in protecting and caring for unborn infants.”

The state plans to appeal.

“We believe Georgia’s LIFE Act is fully constitutional, and we will immediately appeal the lower court’s decision,” said Kara Murray, a spokesperson for Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr.

Sistersong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective filed the lawsuit to challenge Georgia’s law. 

With six-week abortion bans in Georgia and Florida, Floridians have been accessing abortion pills through mail or traveling as far away as North Carolina, Pittsburgh, Chicago and New York to access medical treatment, advocates said.

On the ballot this November is an initiative that would enshrine abortion rights into the Florida Constitution. To pass, however, it needs at least 60% of the vote.

Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is personally opposed to Amendment 4, has been accused of inappropriately using state resources to fight it. He argues Amendment 4 is written vaguely and will deregulate the abortion industry and make Florida a safe haven for women from other states who want abortions.