Fulton County judge denies request to temporary halt Georgia Heartbeat Law

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FULTON COUNTY, Ga. - A Fulton County judge has dismissed a request to order a temporary halt to Georgia's Heartbeat Law. The law bans most abortions after a heartbeat is detected, usually around six weeks of pregnancy.

The lawsuit was filed shortly after the Heartbeat Law went into effect this summer. Attorneys for a women's reproductive rights group wanted a Fulton County judge to issue a temporary injunction to halt Georgia's Heartbeat law.

In his decision handed down on Monday, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney wrote that he was not able to act by granting a temporary halt to the law.

"Put more plainly, the Court is dismissing the motion not on its merits but because the Court lacks jurisdiction to consider its merits," the judge wrote.

Reaction to the decision was quick.

"We are deeply disappointed that the Court is allowing our state’s extreme six-week abortion ban to remain in effect and is putting thousands of Georgians in danger by denying them essential health care," said Monica Simpson, Executive Director of SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, the lead plaintiff in the case. "Let’s be clear, SisterSong and our partners have been in this fight for bodily autonomy since the beginning and we are not done. We know the impacts of forced pregnancy on individuals and communities: among them economic hardships and, in Georgia, the exacerbation of an alarmingly high maternal mortality rate among Black women. Our vision for Georgia is that everyone, including Queer, trans, and low-income people have the freedom to decide to have children, to not have children, and to raise the families they have in thriving communities. We will continue to show up until this becomes a reality."

The Heartbeat Law was originally by lawmakers and signed by Governor Brian Kemp in 2019, but did not go into effect right away because of lawsuits challenging its validity. After the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade this summer, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit allowed the ban to go into effect.  

"The court’s decision today declining to block the abortion ban is extremely disappointing and leaves in place a law that severely compromises the quality of women’s healthcare in the state of Georgia," said Andrea Young, executive director of ACLU of Georgia. "Ultimately, the power is with Georgia voters to affirm our right to privacy and to make personal, private and intimate decisions without government interference."

Those arguing during a hearing last week held by Judge McBurney said the law should never have been allowed to go into effect.

The suit also argues the heartbeat abortion ban violates Georgia's constitution because it contains strong privacy protections.

"The court’s decision today declining to block the abortion ban is extremely disappointing and leaves in place a law that severely compromises the quality of women’s healthcare in the state of Georgia," said Andrea Young, executive director of ACLU of Georgia. "Ultimately, the power is with Georgia voters to affirm our right to privacy and to make personal, private and intimate decisions without government interference."

Judge McBurney wrote his decision is not a ruling on if the law is constitutional.

"The question of whether it is constitutional for the State to force a woman to carry to term a six-week-old embryo against her wishes, even in the face of serious medical risk, remains to be answered," the judge wrote in his ruling.

A spokesperson for the ACLU said it would continue to fight and will be scheduling a hearing before the judge on the issue of constitutionality soon.