The Georgia Supreme Court reinstated the state’s ban on abortion after six weeks on Wednesday.
In a one-page order, the state’s supreme court put on hold a lower court ruling overturning the ban while it considers an appeal.
“The State of Georgia’s Emergency Petition for Supersedeas seeking a stay of the order of the Superior Court of Fulton County in the above-styled action is hereby granted,” the order reads.
The court said seven of the justices agreed on the decision, one justice was disqualified and one did not participate.
Last week, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ruled that the ban was “unconstitutional” because it was signed into law in 2019, before the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
The state attorney general appealed the lower court’s ruling to the Georgia Supreme Court.
Now that the abortion ban is back in effect, abortion providers who had started to perform the procedure after six weeks after the lower court ruling will again have to stop, the Associated Press noted.
The law, which went into effect when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in July, bans most abortions once a “detectable human heartbeat” was present. This is around 6 weeks when most women aren’t even aware that they are pregnant.
