"I think it's wonderful," Carol Tobias of National Right to Life told AFN.
Attorney Gen. Chris Carr (R-Georgia)'s office is asking the Georgia Supreme Court to reinstate the law banning most abortions after the first six weeks or so of pregnancy while the court considers the state's appeal.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ruled this week that the ban -- in place since 2022 -- violated women's rights to liberty and privacy under Georgia's state constitution. His decision rolled back abortion limits in the state to a prior law that allowed abortions until viability, roughly 22 to 24 weeks into a pregnancy.
In his opinion McBurney wrote that the Georgia Constitution includes the “power of a woman to control her own body.”
Activist judge overrides elected Court
Tobias told the Associated Press that McBurney is an “activist” judge and that the ruling was "ridiculous." When asked by AFN, Tobias called it a rogue decision.
Whatever the description, a decision by one local jurist overturned a ruling by state supreme court justices who are elected by the people of Georgia.
"The Georgia State Supreme Court has already upheld their heartbeat law saying that the state legislature can protect babies after they have developed a heartbeat," said Tobias. "This judge had no basis for basically overturning the state supreme court because he is a county judge."
Though the six-week ban could soon return pending the decision of the state supremes, some Georgia clinic workers were ready to spring into action, saying they would begin accepting patients whose pregnancies are past six weeks’ gestation.
When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade and handed the issue of abortion back to the states, National Right to Life and other pro-life organizations told AFN that the battle over abortion was far from over.
"We are going to start seeing, I think, more rogue judges more concerned about upholding abortion than upholding the constitution."
