The ban will resume while the court considers an appeal to a decision that had briefly allowed greater access to abortions in the state.
The Georgia Supreme Court on Monday reinstated a state law that prohibits abortions beyond six weeks of pregnancy while it considers an appeal to a lower court decision that had briefly restored greater access to the procedure.
The abortion law, called the Living Infants Fairness and Equality Act, or the LIFE Act, was set to take effect again at 5 p.m. Monday.
Six justices agreed in full with the majority ruling, and another only in part. One justice did not participate and another had been disqualified from participating in the case.
When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the federal constitutional right to an abortion in 2022, states were left to regulate the rules around the procedure. Since then, about 20 states have banned or restricted abortions, effectively ending the practice in the South. Many lawsuits have been filed to challenge those new standards.
On Sept. 30, Judge Robert C.I. McBurney of the Fulton County Superior Court overturned the Georgia law because he found that it violated the state’s Constitution.
“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 health care choices,” Judge McBurney wrote in his 26-page ruling.
