(Oregon Right to Life) — A pro-abortion judge on Monday struck down Georgia’s pro-life law, declaring that the legislation violated the state constitution.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ruled that the state’s law limiting abortion after a fetal heartbeat can be detected (around six weeks) was unconstitutional. The move comes in spite of the fact that the Georgia Supreme Court previously upheld the state’s pro-life law, dubbed the Life Act, in 2023.
“Once again, the will of Georgians and their representatives has been overruled by the personal beliefs of one judge,” Georgia Republican Governor Brian Kemp said in a Monday statement. “Protecting the lives of the most vulnerable among us is one of our most sacred responsibilities, and Georgia will continue to be a place where we fight for the lives of the unborn.”
National Right to Life President Carol Tobias also decried the ruling, calling McBurney an “activist judge.”
“In an act that defies reason, this activist judge has decided to ignore the 2023 decision of the Georgia Supreme Court that declared the Living Infants Fairness and Equality Act constitutional,” Tobias said in a statement.
“This judge has chosen to make rulings based on his own beliefs rather than the law and higher court judgments,” she said.
McBurney’s opinion included numerous phrases and arguments commonly used by pro-abortion activists, including calling pregnant women “human incubators” and making reference to the dystopian novel “The Handmaid’s Tale.”
“For these women, the liberty of privacy means that they alone should choose whether they serve as human incubators for the five months leading up to viability,” McBurney wrote. “It is not for a legislator, a judge, or a Commander from The Handmaid’s Tale to tell these women what to do with their bodies during this period when the fetus cannot survive outside the womb any more so than society could – or should – force them to serve as a human tissue bank or to give up a kidney for the benefit of another.”
McBurney also suggested that protecting the unborn involves a “subtext of involuntary servitude,” inaccurately claiming that “[i]t is generally men who promote and defend laws like the Life Act…”
Contrary to McBurney’s claim, a large percentage of pro-life advocates nationwide– and the leaders of many major pro-life organizations, including Live Action, National Right to Life, Students for Life of America, and Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America – are all women. Catholic Association Senior Fellow Ashley McGuire has pointed out that “[t]he pro-life movement has always been driven by women.”
McBurney’s decision comes shortly after Georgia’s pro-life law became the subject of nationwide headlines after two ProPublica reports linked the law to the deaths of two pregnant women, the Guardian noted.
However, the women both died taking the abortion pill mifepristone and contracting sepsis, a known potential side effect of the abortion drug.
READ: No, Georgia’s Pro-Life Law Was Not Responsible for the Deaths of Two Moms
McBurney’s Monday decision means that abortion is now legal in Georgia until 22 weeks gestation, which is when most babies can survive outside the womb.
The state attorney general’s office has already vowed to challenge the ruling, CNN reported.
“We believe Georgia’s LIFE Act is fully constitutional, and we will immediately appeal the lower court’s decision,” Kara Murray, communications director for Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, said in a statement.
