State judge strikes down Georgia abortion ban

A judge in Fulton County, Georgia, struck down the state's six-week abortion ban Monday, allowing the procedure to resume and making it legal up to 22 weeks of pregnancy.The state law, known as the LIFE Act, was signed by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp in 2019 but didn’t take effect until July 2022, after it faced a legal challenge and the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade.Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney wrote in his ruling Monday that 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."That power is not, however, unlimited," McBurney continued. "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."...