ATLANTA—On Monday, Oct. 7, the Supreme Court of Georgia reinstated the state’s six-week abortion ban that was struck down by Judge Robert McBurney of Fulton County Superior Court one week before. The reinstatement takes effect at 5 p.m. on Oct. 7 while the high court considers an appeal by the state attorney general.

Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr’s office immediately appealed the lower court’s decision of Sept. 30, saying “we believe Georgia’s LIFE Act is fully constitutional.”

Georgia’s LIFE (Living Infants Fairness and Equality) Act, or “heartbeat law” prohibits with some exceptions abortion after fetal cardiac activity can be detected, about six weeks into a pregnancy. The law was signed by Gov. Brian Kemp in 2019, but it did not go into effect immediately because Roe v. Wade was the law of the land at the time of its passage.

In an initial 2022 decision, McBurney had called the law “unequivocally unconstitutional” because it was enacted in 2019, while Roe v. Wade was still in place.

But the Georgia Supreme Court rejected McBurney’s ruling in a 6-1 decision Oct. 24, 2023, allowing the six-week ban to remain in effect amid ongoing legal challenges.

One week ago, McBurney again struck down the law, ruling on the suit filed by SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective against the State of Georgia. In a 26-page ruling, he wrote, “a review of our higher courts’ interpretations of ‘liberty’ demonstrates 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.”

The Catholic Church teaches that all human life is sacred from conception to natural death, and opposes direct abortion.