Georgia supreme court upholds state’s six-week abortion ban

Ruling will allow ban, first passed in 2019, to stay in place while litigation continues

Abortions after roughly six weeks of pregnancy will remain illegal in Georgia, the state’s supreme court ruled Tuesday. The ruling will allow the state’s six-week ban, which was first passed in 2019 and took effect after the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade last year, to stay in place while litigation over the ban continues.

In their challenge to a six-week ban, known as the Living Infants Fairness and Equality (Life) Act, a group of abortion rights supporters had argued that it should be struck down because it ignored the fact that, in 2019, the US still recognized the constitutional right to abortion. A lower court in Georgia agreed with that argument, but the Georgia supreme court discarded it.