Judge strikes down Georgia’s abortion law — at least for now

Until the high court acts, though, it means Georgia — at least temporarily — has among the least restrictive abortion laws in the South.

The law now on hold prohibited abortions in most instances once a doctor could detect fetal cardiac activity, typically about six weeks into a pregnancy and before many know they are pregnant. It did include four exemptions that allowed later abortions — to save the life of the patient, if the fetus would not survive, or if the patient was a victim of rape or incest and had filed a police report.

The General Assembly passed the law in 2019. It did not take effect, however, until after the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that guaranteed a nationwide right to abortion until a fetus is viable to live on its own.

McBurney’s ruling followed along similar lines as Roe.

“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,” he wrote.

This was the second time McBurney had ruled against the fetal cardiac law. In a 2022 decision, he found it had been passed illegally because Roe v. Wade was still the law of the land at the time of its passage. The state Supreme Court overturned that ruling last year and sent the case back to McBurney.

Now, with McBurney’s new ruling in place, abortion clinics in Georgia are expecting to see a surge in appointments.

After the fetal cardiac law took effect, the Feminist Women’s Health Center turned away as many as 10 or 11 people a day because they were too far along in their pregnancies.

A day after McBurney overturned the law, the Atlanta-based clinic turned away none of the 44 people scheduled to get an abortion.

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

Helene cuts path through Georgia and candidates follow

Presidential candidates came to Georgia this week to view the damage Helene wrought — including at least 25 deaths — on its way farther north.

Former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, visited Valdosta on Monday and aimed attacks at his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, and President Joe Biden.

He called Biden “very nonresponsive” to the calls of Republican Gov. Brian Kemp. The governor shot down the claim, saying he had spoken to Biden the night before and he appreciated the “bipartisan way” local, state and federal leaders worked together in response to the crisis.

“He just said, ‘Hey, what do you need?’ And I told him, you know, we got what we need. We’ll work through the federal process,” Kemp said of his conversation with Biden. “He offered that if there’s other things we need, just to call him directly, which I appreciate.”

Trump also berated Harris for holding fundraisers in California after the storm hit. Harris was in Washington the day Trump was in Valdosta, meeting with officials with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Trump, meanwhile, spent the weekend after the storm hit on the campaign trail, with events in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. He also traveled to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, to watch part of the Georgia-Alabama game from a luxury suite.

Harris, in her official duties and not as a campaign event, toured damage in east Georgia on Wednesday, when she announced approval of Kemp’s request for the federal government to reimburse 100% of local costs to cover the response in counties that have been declared disasters.

Kemp suspends gas tax

Gov. Brian Kemp’s response to Helene includes suspending the state’s gas tax.

The move effectively lowers the price of gasoline and diesel fuel by more than 30 cents, state Department of Revenue data shows.

The average price of regular gasoline in Georgia is $2.94 a gallon, about 24 cents a gallon cheaper than the national average, according to Gas Buddy, which tracks fuel prices nationally.

“As Georgians recover from Hurricane Helene, with the support of our legislative partners, I have suspended the gas tax for the duration of this State of Emergency, bringing relief to communities who continue to rely on fuel to power their homes and necessary equipment,” Kemp wrote on the social media platform X.

Kemp has suspended the tax before, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine sent gas prices above $4 a gallon.

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez

Judge makes strong statement requiring certification of election results

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney indicated he was unlikely to toss out a new State Election Board rule to require county officials to investigate election results.

But during two preelection trials, he affirmed that state law requires county election boards to certify results one week after election day.

“The deadline is the deadline. Get done what you can. What is reasonable to one person might be not reasonable to another. But you make your inquiry and then it’s wheels up at 5 p.m. on the 12th of November,” McBurney said.

The Republican-controlled State Election Board recently approved a rule calling for county election boards to conduct an undefined “reasonable inquiry” before certification.

Democrats who sued said the rule created an opening for rogue election board members to reject the results. They warned the rule could lead to disputes over the vote count.

Republicans agreed certification is mandatory, but they said individual board members had the right to vote “no” and a majority of members could decide to exclude precincts from certification if they suspected fraud or irregularities.

A recent Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigation found at least 19 Georgia board members, most of them Republicans, have voted not to certify election results since 2020.

McBurney didn’t immediately issue rulings.

Credit: Miguel Martinez

Credit: Miguel Martinez

More than 40,000 Georgians regain eligibility to vote

Some didn’t vote or respond to mail from election officials in two general election cycles. Others were convicted of felonies. Then there were those who moved to another state.

They all saw their Georgia voter registrations canceled.

But they’re back, having reregistered — more than 40,000 of them.

Most of them last updated their registration after Vice President Kamala Harris joined the presidential race as the Democratic nominee, according to an AJC analysis of the state’s voter roll. Roughly 25% did it on a single day, July 30, the same day Harris held a rally in Atlanta.

Mitchell Brown, a political scientist at Auburn University, said the timing of the updated registrations could reflect increased interest in Harris as a candidate or coincide with more outreach to voters around that time.

Greater Georgia, a Republican-led effort, said it reaches out to voters who have not participated in elections for a long time.

“After making over 100,000 phone calls, we’ve helped reregister many Georgians who haven’t voted in decades,” Greater Georgia spokesperson Caitlin O’Dea said in a statement.

Credit: Alyssa Pointer/Alyssa.Pointer@ajc.com

Credit: Alyssa Pointer/Alyssa.Pointer@ajc.com

New law limits sales of hemp products to minors

Georgia saw a new law take effect this past week banning the sale of hemp products to anyone under 21, including foods such as chocolate and alcohol that include hemp as an ingredient.

Other things, however, such as gummies and oils, are still legal.

Demand has soared since hemp farming and distribution became legal in 2018. Products containing cannabidiol, or CBD, are legal as long as they don’t contain more than 0.3% of THC, the psychoactive compound that makes people high.

But bring an ID.