Fulton County Judge Robert McBurney just struck down the Georgia LIFE Act, which makes abortion after six weeks a felony. The filing is a stinging rebuke of the anti-choice law.
"Women are not some piece of collectively owned community property the disposition of which is decided by majority vote." This is an amazing court decision and shows that this male judge actually gets it. This is not a long decision (26 pages) but everyone needs to read it. I also love the snark in some of the footnotes, the way the judge included in the decision the vagueness of the law (all of these abortion bans are intentionally vague) and the political reasoning in choosing an arbitrary 6-week ban. This suit was filed by OB/GYNs, reproductive heath centers and others who were able to speak to the medical aspects of abortion. Thank you for bringing this to our attention.
While the women of Georgia are rightfully rejoicing the impact of this ruling, let us all remind them this will not be the end of attempts to interfere with their right to liberty and privacy. It remains crucial that they register and VOTE!
🤬🤬🤬 Trump & those 6 religious nut jobs on the Supreme Court are the dividers; trying their dead level best to relegate 50% of society into enforced servitude; ie slavery.
It is encouragement that all judges are not committed to relegated women in GA to forced birth and chattel slavery. That there is still non Christian Nationalist/white supremacist thought in the GA judiciary. BC don’t get it twisted; thus whole states rights/let the states decide schtick was used to justify slavery. Know and understand history.
Commie Kamala...Trump gives himself full credit for reversing women's reproductive rights, and abortion. Told you to your face and you come up with this? What are you on? Oh, Im just as concerned about having a convicted criminal, top rate cheat, rapist con man for Prez. Left us 7 trillion in debt. But like all simpletons, you see what you want to see. Sad. Vote these confused, bitter, fearful misfits out! VOTE BLUE up and down the ballot. 👊🏽👊🏽👊🏽👊🏽👊🏽
I presumed you as educated as I was. Nonetheless it is you who started throwing around epithets and phrases like “pulling my head out of my ass”. not me. So be it. Apparently this “discussion” has reached an impasse. No need to continue
You are a fanatic. A fanatic entitled to keep your fanatic views off of my agency and my body. You are entitled to your views. But I wish you could be in the OR to hold the hand of a crying 10 year old who has been raped, and who doesn’t know what is going to be done, but she is going off to sleep. I saw that not just once but many times. That child would not have been pregnant save for the selfish actions of a man who was ejaculating irresponsibly. THAT IS THE PROBLEM.
I‘m afraid you are chatting with a russian troll! Only they and Piers Morgan believe Trump rejected his Love for an abortion ban.. after he continues to brags about overturning Roe v. Wade!
It is indeed a deeper game being paid by Vance and billionaire wanna be oligarchs that support and fund him. The orange felon is merely a means to an end. 2 years into his presidency, he would be induced to resign, leaving Vance 10 years of rule and installation of Project 2025 and minoritarian rule over the majority. 2 years to change all the voting laws to disenfranchise or deport anyone not inclined to agree w the Christian Nationalists. Remember, that asshole who runs Heritage Foundation says they will have a “bloodless coup”. The blood would have been shed under and by the regime if the orange felon, who would then be deposed or forced to resign.
WOWZA - I didn't see this coming - thank you AG for bring the gems from this ruling! Especially: "For these women, the liberty of privacy means that they alone should choose whether they serve as human incubators for the five months leading up to viability. It is not for a legislator, a judge, or a Commander from The Handmaid’s Tale to tell these women what to do with their bodies during this period when the fetus cannot survive outside the womb any more so than society could -- or should -- force them to serve as a human tissue bank or to give up a kidney for the benefit of another. "
Fantastic words in that ruling. However, viability is not medical terminology & most of us would prefer zero govt involvement at any stage of pregnancy. I recommend everyone read Jessica Valenti’s brand new book,”Abortion; Our Bodies, Their Lies, and the Truths We Use to Win.” I just received my copy on Friday
Thank you AG. I think Professor Kreiss may be right. Will the Georgia high court make a decision about what constitutes a “human heartbeat”? When does a fetus become human? HISTORY HAS SAID AT BIRTH! A baby at birth and a fetus in the womb.
An excellent point. I’m sure the attorneys challenging the law are fully aware of the biology, but I cannot resist pointing out that a 6wk fetus cannot possibly have a heartbeat as it doesn’t have a heart. The “beat” detected is an electrical pulse.
Yes, that electrical impulse that they pick up on ultrasound at around 6-7 weeks is not a “heartbeat” since there is no heart at that stage, therefore it cannot contract & “beat”
Bravo. No legislator in the world can make a law that requires a non-viable fetus to live on its own. That should be SO self evident. I LOVE the language the judge uses. You simply can't GET to the point where you can even treat "each life" as equal enough to balance till the child has a chance of survival--particularly when the result is diminishing the mothers established right to survival--without injecting religion into it, some theory of "soul," a "fact" finding that needs to be kept well and truly away from our laws.
He was the judge that heard the Meadows motion to remove to federal court. He rejected it. He isn’t the trial judge.
In any case, he is a hero for women and those who have women in their lives.
I wish this ruling could have come sooner, but I suspect that some of the bite in his writing is pure anger at the preventable deaths of Amber Thurman and the other woman whose name I don’t remember right now.
I do not see him being reversed. But I’m an optimist.
This may or not be overturned because those who hide behind their fake Christian values will not stop until they control everything and everyone who don't align with what they think is true and right. I applaud this Judge for standing up for the women in Georgia.
Oh & also, plenty of Conservative Republican women who attend church every Sunday, have sex & need abortions too. Even those who scream foul language at clinic patients as they protest outside an abortion clinic, sneak themselves or their daughters in to get abortions.
You know nothing of Jesus Christ either! Christ was not a hateful, vindictive man; he was a loving, compassionate, & forgiving man & he tried to teach his disciples to model & teach that behavior. You worship the Old Testament angry, vengeful God, who had no problem with smiting & killing hundreds of babies.
Hey PJ take a look at Numbers 5 and tell me what the punishment God gave to a women who may or may not if had an affair. Or the mear thought that her husband was wrong about that affair but was just jealous. I will patiently wait for your response
I haven’t read the Bible in decades so I had to google Numbers 5. Of course it goes into a bunch of twisted language, but basically what I got out of it was, that if the woman had indeed committed adultery, the bitter water magic potion would cause her belly to swell & her thigh to rot. As a retired ICU nurse, that essentially sounds like a death sentence to me, since they had no antibiotics back then, & even today, such a serious ailment could kill you.
And of course, neither the jealous husband, nor the man she had the affair with, would suffer any punishment. The whole thing is total crap & shows where the religious people of today got their nonsense beliefs about it’s always the woman’s fault, & ONLY the woman has to be punished.
The anti abortion crowd have fed the public so much bs, to get you to think/believe that all abortions are done out of “convenience” due to “slutty” irresponsible behavior by women; which of course is a lie. They never, ever say one word shaming or admonishing the male who was involved. You religious extremists speak of the fetus as a “gift from God” a “beautiful thing” but then in the very next breath, will shame the woman (frequently actually a girl child) & say something that indicates she is being punished for her reckless behavior!! So make up your feeble minds, is a fetus a holy gift, or is it a punishment for the sin of having sex? If it’s a punishment, then where is the equal shame & punishment for the male? (many times good old Uncle Bob or the church pastor) We are fed up with your religious persecution, stay out of govt & out of medical decisions. Keep your religious scorn inside your churches.
Dude. Don't question my faith. I understand my Bible quite well. The difference between you and I is I follow the New Testament that is full of hope, love and forgiveness. Jesus said whatever you do to the least among you, you do unto me.
Art take a look at Numbers 5 and tell me what God is doing to the women. And yes I've seen the pictures of aborted fetuses your kind plaster them everywhere. Personality as aan i don't think you have a say in this matter. If a women has to make a difficult decision that's between her and her God. I want my government out of my life as much as possible
Thank you Clare. They think that anyone who doesn't think like them are wrong. Facts do not get through to them. I'm guessing they blame the woman when she has a miscarriage. Which is anywhere between 10-20%. The sad fact is it's simply about control and nothing else
Finally, a person with brains and a backbone. Thank you let's hope other courts will see the truth in this judgement. After all, the Constitution says our rights are for LIFE,LIBERTY, and the PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS.
Wow that was amazing - Pointing out that women can not be compelled to do the state's work. Also pointing forced pregnancy is not much different then force kidney donation.
We are well aware of the racism that still existed during Sanger’s time period, & we are well aware that it still exists today. That doesn’t negate the fact that women of all races, religions, or nationalities should have the freedom to have quality sex education, access to affordable birth control, & abortion services when needed.
You can deny that all you want but you cannot change the truth. Thomas Jefferson even wrote encouraging the slave owners to purchase plenty of females because they “turn a profit every year or so.” He wasn’t referring to their ability to work harder in the fields than a male, that’s for sure.
He meant their ability to produce another body to work the plantation, & potentially to be sold for a profit. It didn’t much matter if she got impregnated by a male slave of the owners choosing, the slob overseer, or the owner himself. No, I do not feel guilty, I just believe in justice & self-determination for everyone.
Judges in GA are elected, and this is a Fulton County judge. I love his ruling, but his basing it on privacy and equal rights puts it in the crosshairs of the religious bigots. How far Right is the SCOGA?
Of course I agree with him on that! A pregnant woman's rights must precede those of a blastocyst, an embryo, a fetus...up until that fetus is viable extra-utero, e.g. a baby. The whole fetal personhood "debate" belongs in semenary school...it has no place in civil law.
That makes it extremely important to educate the voters in GA about the need to pay attention to their judges rulings & political leanings when they come up for re-election or when they have challengers.
Thank you Ms. Gill. I was irked at first that the plaintiffs apparently agreed that a "human heartbeat" is detectable at about 6 weeks' gestation. There is no heart at that point, and the "fetus" is still an embryo. But I actually think it's smart not to hinge the argument for women's rights on whether detecting a little flutter on an ultrasound does or doesn't confer rights on the developing fetus that override the rights of the "vessel" that contains it. My favorite part of the ruling was the bit that talked about forcing women to do the State's work. I didn't read the whole opinion (didn't feel like I needed to, thanks to your concise synopsis!), but without using the word "slavery" that's what it describes. Let's see where this goes, fingers crossed we can once again liberate ourselves from the tyranny of the misogynistic religious nuts among us.
Absolutely 💯 I want us to stop referring to that electrical impulse emanating from a few cells as a heartbeat when there is no heart developed at that point & won’t be for a while.
"Women are not some piece of collectively owned community property the disposition of which is decided by majority vote." This is an amazing court decision and shows that this male judge actually gets it. This is not a long decision (26 pages) but everyone needs to read it. I also love the snark in some of the footnotes, the way the judge included in the decision the vagueness of the law (all of these abortion bans are intentionally vague) and the political reasoning in choosing an arbitrary 6-week ban. This suit was filed by OB/GYNs, reproductive heath centers and others who were able to speak to the medical aspects of abortion. Thank you for bringing this to our attention.
While the women of Georgia are rightfully rejoicing the impact of this ruling, let us all remind them this will not be the end of attempts to interfere with their right to liberty and privacy. It remains crucial that they register and VOTE!
Yes🙌Register🇺🇸VOTE 💙Dissent🙋♀️
🤬🤬🤬 Trump & those 6 religious nut jobs on the Supreme Court are the dividers; trying their dead level best to relegate 50% of society into enforced servitude; ie slavery.
No thank you, we’re having none of that nonsense.
It is encouragement that all judges are not committed to relegated women in GA to forced birth and chattel slavery. That there is still non Christian Nationalist/white supremacist thought in the GA judiciary. BC don’t get it twisted; thus whole states rights/let the states decide schtick was used to justify slavery. Know and understand history.
Commie Kamala...Trump gives himself full credit for reversing women's reproductive rights, and abortion. Told you to your face and you come up with this? What are you on? Oh, Im just as concerned about having a convicted criminal, top rate cheat, rapist con man for Prez. Left us 7 trillion in debt. But like all simpletons, you see what you want to see. Sad. Vote these confused, bitter, fearful misfits out! VOTE BLUE up and down the ballot. 👊🏽👊🏽👊🏽👊🏽👊🏽
I presumed you as educated as I was. Nonetheless it is you who started throwing around epithets and phrases like “pulling my head out of my ass”. not me. So be it. Apparently this “discussion” has reached an impasse. No need to continue
You are a fanatic. A fanatic entitled to keep your fanatic views off of my agency and my body. You are entitled to your views. But I wish you could be in the OR to hold the hand of a crying 10 year old who has been raped, and who doesn’t know what is going to be done, but she is going off to sleep. I saw that not just once but many times. That child would not have been pregnant save for the selfish actions of a man who was ejaculating irresponsibly. THAT IS THE PROBLEM.
I‘m afraid you are chatting with a russian troll! Only they and Piers Morgan believe Trump rejected his Love for an abortion ban.. after he continues to brags about overturning Roe v. Wade!
LMAOROTFPM
No. Trump is done. Leonard Leo et al are done with him. Vance is the face of this GOP. Get with the program.
It is indeed a deeper game being paid by Vance and billionaire wanna be oligarchs that support and fund him. The orange felon is merely a means to an end. 2 years into his presidency, he would be induced to resign, leaving Vance 10 years of rule and installation of Project 2025 and minoritarian rule over the majority. 2 years to change all the voting laws to disenfranchise or deport anyone not inclined to agree w the Christian Nationalists. Remember, that asshole who runs Heritage Foundation says they will have a “bloodless coup”. The blood would have been shed under and by the regime if the orange felon, who would then be deposed or forced to resign.
LMAO
WOWZA - I didn't see this coming - thank you AG for bring the gems from this ruling! Especially: "For these women, the liberty of privacy means that they alone should choose whether they serve as human incubators for the five months leading up to viability. It is not for a legislator, a judge, or a Commander from The Handmaid’s Tale to tell these women what to do with their bodies during this period when the fetus cannot survive outside the womb any more so than society could -- or should -- force them to serve as a human tissue bank or to give up a kidney for the benefit of another. "
Fantastic words in that ruling. However, viability is not medical terminology & most of us would prefer zero govt involvement at any stage of pregnancy. I recommend everyone read Jessica Valenti’s brand new book,”Abortion; Our Bodies, Their Lies, and the Truths We Use to Win.” I just received my copy on Friday
Thank you AG. I think Professor Kreiss may be right. Will the Georgia high court make a decision about what constitutes a “human heartbeat”? When does a fetus become human? HISTORY HAS SAID AT BIRTH! A baby at birth and a fetus in the womb.
An excellent point. I’m sure the attorneys challenging the law are fully aware of the biology, but I cannot resist pointing out that a 6wk fetus cannot possibly have a heartbeat as it doesn’t have a heart. The “beat” detected is an electrical pulse.
Interesting. "And they get such shrinkage, they have to do things..." Isn't that the truth of our males? Always following their second head 🤷🏻♀️
There are exceptions and boy do we (males, females and everyone in between…) all appreciate them !!!
Yes, that electrical impulse that they pick up on ultrasound at around 6-7 weeks is not a “heartbeat” since there is no heart at that stage, therefore it cannot contract & “beat”
Bravo. No legislator in the world can make a law that requires a non-viable fetus to live on its own. That should be SO self evident. I LOVE the language the judge uses. You simply can't GET to the point where you can even treat "each life" as equal enough to balance till the child has a chance of survival--particularly when the result is diminishing the mothers established right to survival--without injecting religion into it, some theory of "soul," a "fact" finding that needs to be kept well and truly away from our laws.
McBurney is the trump trial judge, is he not?
He was the judge that heard the Meadows motion to remove to federal court. He rejected it. He isn’t the trial judge.
In any case, he is a hero for women and those who have women in their lives.
I wish this ruling could have come sooner, but I suspect that some of the bite in his writing is pure anger at the preventable deaths of Amber Thurman and the other woman whose name I don’t remember right now.
I do not see him being reversed. But I’m an optimist.
McBurney is the trial judge for the case brought to strike down the new election subversion rules set by the infamous triad of Georgia Elections Board members. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/challenge-by-us-democrats-georgia-election-rules-goes-trial-2024-10-01/. Fingers crossed that he's on a roll for democracy as well as for personal freedom and privacy.
Perfect.
Perfection. I admire this ruling so much. AG, you churned this out so fast, like a pro!
This may or not be overturned because those who hide behind their fake Christian values will not stop until they control everything and everyone who don't align with what they think is true and right. I applaud this Judge for standing up for the women in Georgia.
Fake christian is so correct. I don't know who these monsters are worshipping, but it sure as fuck isn't christ.
Oh & also, plenty of Conservative Republican women who attend church every Sunday, have sex & need abortions too. Even those who scream foul language at clinic patients as they protest outside an abortion clinic, sneak themselves or their daughters in to get abortions.
You know nothing of Jesus Christ either! Christ was not a hateful, vindictive man; he was a loving, compassionate, & forgiving man & he tried to teach his disciples to model & teach that behavior. You worship the Old Testament angry, vengeful God, who had no problem with smiting & killing hundreds of babies.
Hey PJ take a look at Numbers 5 and tell me what the punishment God gave to a women who may or may not if had an affair. Or the mear thought that her husband was wrong about that affair but was just jealous. I will patiently wait for your response
Hi robin,
I haven’t read the Bible in decades so I had to google Numbers 5. Of course it goes into a bunch of twisted language, but basically what I got out of it was, that if the woman had indeed committed adultery, the bitter water magic potion would cause her belly to swell & her thigh to rot. As a retired ICU nurse, that essentially sounds like a death sentence to me, since they had no antibiotics back then, & even today, such a serious ailment could kill you.
And of course, neither the jealous husband, nor the man she had the affair with, would suffer any punishment. The whole thing is total crap & shows where the religious people of today got their nonsense beliefs about it’s always the woman’s fault, & ONLY the woman has to be punished.
How did you read it?
PJ my apologies. I shouldn't have directed that to you I meant that for Art the genius trying to shame us.
The anti abortion crowd have fed the public so much bs, to get you to think/believe that all abortions are done out of “convenience” due to “slutty” irresponsible behavior by women; which of course is a lie. They never, ever say one word shaming or admonishing the male who was involved. You religious extremists speak of the fetus as a “gift from God” a “beautiful thing” but then in the very next breath, will shame the woman (frequently actually a girl child) & say something that indicates she is being punished for her reckless behavior!! So make up your feeble minds, is a fetus a holy gift, or is it a punishment for the sin of having sex? If it’s a punishment, then where is the equal shame & punishment for the male? (many times good old Uncle Bob or the church pastor) We are fed up with your religious persecution, stay out of govt & out of medical decisions. Keep your religious scorn inside your churches.
Bravo PJ. Both siding things is their favorite thing
Dude. Don't question my faith. I understand my Bible quite well. The difference between you and I is I follow the New Testament that is full of hope, love and forgiveness. Jesus said whatever you do to the least among you, you do unto me.
Art take a look at Numbers 5 and tell me what God is doing to the women. And yes I've seen the pictures of aborted fetuses your kind plaster them everywhere. Personality as aan i don't think you have a say in this matter. If a women has to make a difficult decision that's between her and her God. I want my government out of my life as much as possible
Thank you Clare. They think that anyone who doesn't think like them are wrong. Facts do not get through to them. I'm guessing they blame the woman when she has a miscarriage. Which is anywhere between 10-20%. The sad fact is it's simply about control and nothing else
Please troll somewhere else
⏫️ can't imagine why
Finally, a person with brains and a backbone. Thank you let's hope other courts will see the truth in this judgement. After all, the Constitution says our rights are for LIFE,LIBERTY, and the PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS.
Wow that was amazing - Pointing out that women can not be compelled to do the state's work. Also pointing forced pregnancy is not much different then force kidney donation.
We are well aware of the racism that still existed during Sanger’s time period, & we are well aware that it still exists today. That doesn’t negate the fact that women of all races, religions, or nationalities should have the freedom to have quality sex education, access to affordable birth control, & abortion services when needed.
You can deny that all you want but you cannot change the truth. Thomas Jefferson even wrote encouraging the slave owners to purchase plenty of females because they “turn a profit every year or so.” He wasn’t referring to their ability to work harder in the fields than a male, that’s for sure.
He meant their ability to produce another body to work the plantation, & potentially to be sold for a profit. It didn’t much matter if she got impregnated by a male slave of the owners choosing, the slob overseer, or the owner himself. No, I do not feel guilty, I just believe in justice & self-determination for everyone.
Judges in GA are elected, and this is a Fulton County judge. I love his ruling, but his basing it on privacy and equal rights puts it in the crosshairs of the religious bigots. How far Right is the SCOGA?
He also centers his ruling on viability outside the woman's body.
Of course I agree with him on that! A pregnant woman's rights must precede those of a blastocyst, an embryo, a fetus...up until that fetus is viable extra-utero, e.g. a baby. The whole fetal personhood "debate" belongs in semenary school...it has no place in civil law.
That makes it extremely important to educate the voters in GA about the need to pay attention to their judges rulings & political leanings when they come up for re-election or when they have challengers.
I got misty and chills reading this. Thanks, AG!
Thank you Ms. Gill. I was irked at first that the plaintiffs apparently agreed that a "human heartbeat" is detectable at about 6 weeks' gestation. There is no heart at that point, and the "fetus" is still an embryo. But I actually think it's smart not to hinge the argument for women's rights on whether detecting a little flutter on an ultrasound does or doesn't confer rights on the developing fetus that override the rights of the "vessel" that contains it. My favorite part of the ruling was the bit that talked about forcing women to do the State's work. I didn't read the whole opinion (didn't feel like I needed to, thanks to your concise synopsis!), but without using the word "slavery" that's what it describes. Let's see where this goes, fingers crossed we can once again liberate ourselves from the tyranny of the misogynistic religious nuts among us.
Absolutely 💯 I want us to stop referring to that electrical impulse emanating from a few cells as a heartbeat when there is no heart developed at that point & won’t be for a while.
Wow it took the publicity if 2 women dying to make the court see the light. Bittersweet for sure.
Brilliant, AG. Just brilliant. Thank you!
Reading logical summaries should be normal, not the exception.
Loving it! His opinion is great.