Georgia judge invokes The Handmaid’s Tale while striking down state’s six-week abortion ban

A judge in Georgia has once again blocked the state from enforcing a ban on abortion at roughly six weeks of pregnancy, concluding that state law criminalizing care is unconstitutional.

The 26-page opinion, from Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney, ordered that abortion access must be regulated as it was before Georgia lawmakers passed the state’s anti-abortion law in 2019.

That ban under the state’s “LIFE Act” was effectively blocked by Roe v Wade, which the Supreme Court struck down three years later in 2022.

Monday’s ruling will allow Georgia abortion patients to seek care past six weeks of pregnancy — for now — potentially turning the state into a crucial refuge for access in the South, where every state has outlawed most forms of abortion care at any point in a pregnancy. Providers told reporters after the ruling that they anticipate expanding care access immediately.

Judge McBurney’s stunning order notes that most women are “completely unaware” or “at best unsure” whether they are pregnant at six weeks, or roughly two weeks after a missed period. He compares the state’s anti-abortion law to the violent misogynist regime in Margaret Atwood’s best-selling novel, The Handmaid’s Tale.

“Women are not some piece of collectively owned community property the disposition of which is decided by majority vote,” he wrote. “Forcing a woman to carry an unwanted, not-yet-viable fetus to term violates her constitutional rights to liberty and privacy, even taking into consideration whatever bundle of rights the not-yet-viable fetus may have.”

Judge McBurney wrote that “it is not for a legislator, a judge, or a Commander fromThe Handmaid’s Tale to tell these women what to do with their bodies during this period when