FILE - Abortion rights protesters rally near the Georgia state Capitol in Atlanta, on May 14, (Ben Gray/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)

ATLANTA (AP) — A Georgia judge on Monday struck down the state's abortion law, which took effect in 2022 and effectively prohibited abortions beyond about six weeks of pregnancy.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney wrote in his order that “liberty in Georgia includes in its meaning, in its protections, and in its bundle of rights the power of a woman to control her own body, to decide what happens to it and in it, and to reject state interference with her healthcare choices.”

When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 and ended a national right to abortion, it opened the door for state bans. Fourteen states now bar abortion at all stages of pregnancy, with some exceptions. Georgia was one of four where the bans kick in after about the first six weeks of pregnancy — which is often before women realize they’re pregnant.

The impact of bans has been felt deeply in the South because many people have to travel hundreds of miles to states where abortion procedures can be obtained legally.

The Georgia ruling, if it stands, could open up new avenues to access abortion not only for residents of the state, but for people in nearby states who currently face long trips to places like North Carolina or Illinois.

Georgia’s law was passed by state lawmakers and signed by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp in 2019 but it was initially blocked from taking effect until the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, which had protected the right to an abortion for nearly 50 years.

Kemp has in the past tried to soften its political impact by trying to focus on the health of mothers. Monday, he attacked the ruling.

“Once again, the will of Georgians and their representatives has been overruled by the personal beliefs of one judge,” Kemp said in a 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.”

Carol Tobias, president of the National Right to Life Committee, called the ruling “ridiculous.”

“This judge is an activist judge who is ignoring higher court rulings to do what he wants,” she said in an interview. “And I don’t think it’s going to stand.”

Kara Murray, a spokesperson for Attorney General Chris Carr, said the state would appeal. McBurney's ruling could be put on hold pending that appeal.

Monica Simpson, executive director of SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, celebrated the ruling.

“Since we’ve seen these direct attacks here in the South, in particular, on abortion access, we have been in a deep defensive posture for a really long time,” she said. “It feels like our work has not been in vain.”

While carafem, an abortion provider in Atlanta, plans to expand its services as permitted over the next several weeks, co-founder Melissa Grant worries about the possibility of the state Supreme Court reversing the ruling.

“Staff and clients will be living with this possibility hanging over immediate change, and that can be devastating to people who are trying to plan their lives and try to take care of their health,” Grant said.

The law prohibited most abortions once a “detectable human heartbeat” was present. Cardiac activity can be detected by ultrasound in cells within an embryo that will eventually become the heart at around six weeks into a pregnancy.

Before the law kicked in, there were more than 4,400 abortions each month in Georgia. That has dropped to about 2,400 a month on average since the ban took effect in 2022 according to data compiled for the Society of Family Planning.

McBurney wrote that his ruling means the law in the state returns to what it was before the law was passed in 2019, allowing abortions until roughly 20 weeks into a pregnancy.

The right to privacy in the Georgia Constitution includes the right to make personal healthcare decisions, he wrote.

“When a fetus growing inside a woman reaches viability, when society can assume care and responsibility for that separate life, then — and only then — may society intervene," McBurney wrote.

An “arbitrary six-week ban” on abortions "is inconsistent with these rights and the proper balance that a viability rule establishes between a woman’s rights of liberty and privacy and society’s interest in protecting and caring for unborn infants,” the order says.

In part because Georgia has no way for citizens to place initiatives on the ballot, there’s no referendum on abortion rights scheduled for Georgia’s November election this year. But that hasn’t stopped Democrats from trying to keep abortion on center stage as an issue in Georgia, as they try to appeal to women voters and suburbanites.

On Sept. 20, Vice President Kamala Harris visited Atlanta to cast Republican Donald Trump as a threat to women’s freedom and lives, warning Trump would limit abortion access even more if reelected. It’s also a key issue in state legislative races as Democrats try to cut into Republican majorities, particularly in the state House.

Harris came to Atlanta on Sept. 20 after ProPublica reported that two women in the state died after they did not get proper medical treatment for complications from taking abortion pills to end their pregnancies.

Democrats argue such deaths were a predictable outcome of laws that took effect after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

Harris has been outspoken on abortion rights ever since the Supreme Court’s decision more than two years ago, but the Sept. 20 speech was her first focused squarely on the issue since replacing President Joe Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket.

Amber Thurman died after waiting 20 hours for a hospital to treat complications she experienced after taking abortion pills. Reported by ProPublica, the case is the first publicly reported instance of a woman dying because her care was delayed due to a state abortion law.

The news organization also reported on the death of Candi Miller, a woman with lupus, diabetes and hypertension who took abortion pills she ordered online. An autopsy found fetal tissue that hadn’t been expelled and a lethal combination of painkillers, ProPublica reported. The state’s maternal mortality review committee found that Miller's death was not caused by the abortion medication, and like Thurman's, was preventable.

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Associated Press writers Charlotte Kramon in Atlanta and Geoff Mulvihill in Philadelphia contributed reporting.

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