Former Athens judge strikes down Ga’s anti-abortion law

Steve Jones was Western Circuit Judge

A former Clarke County Superior Court judge writes the ruling that strikes down Georgia’s anti-abortion law: Steve Jones, now a US District Court Judge in Atlanta, says the law that bans most abortions after the detection of a fetal heartbeat is unconstitutional. Governor Brian Kemp says the state will appeal the ruling that was handed down Monday.

From Maya T. Prabhu, AJC…

District Judge Steve C. Jones wrote in his ruling that the law — which would have outlawed most abortions once a doctor can detect fetal cardiac activity, or around six weeks of pregnancy — violated a woman’s constitutional right to access to the procedure as established by the 1973 Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade.

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“It is in the public interest, and is this court’s duty, to ensure constitutional rights are protected,” Jones wrote.