The Georgia Supreme Court has reinstated the states six-week abortion ban one week after a lower court struck it down.Georgias heartbeat bill, passed by the Republican-led state legislature in 2019 and signed by Gov. Brian Kemp (R), bans abortions after doctors can detect an embryos heartbeat. A fetal heartbeat is usually detectable around six weeks of pregnancy (before most women even realize theyre pregnant). The law alsoallows abortionsin some cases of fetal anomalies or when medical issues threaten the gestational parents life. Related Fact Check: Does Missouris abortion ballot measure legalize gender-affirming care? A GOP senator says a ballot measure to legalize abortion would also let schools help children medically transition. Is this true? The 2019 law went into effect in June 2022 after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision legalizing abortion access nationwide. Stay connected to your community Connect with the issues and events that impact your community at home and beyond by subscribing to our newsletter. Subscribe to our Newsletter today Last week, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ruled that the 2019 law was unconstitutional. His ruling made the state revert to its previous policy of allowing abortions through 22 weeks of pregnancy.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, McBurney wrote in his ruling. That power is not, however, unlimited. 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.Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr immediately appealed McBurneys ruling to the state Supreme Court. The state Supreme Court overruled McBurneys decision, but left in place a lower court ruling that blocked a provision of the law that allowed state prosecutors to access abortion patients medical records without due process protections, NBC News reported. Despite the reinstatement of the states six-week abortion ban, the battle over the bans constitutionality will continue to play out in an appeals court. But for now, reproductive rights groups have criticized the states Supreme Court ruling.It is cruel that our patients ability to access the reproductive health care they need has been taken away yet again, wrote Feminist Womens Health Center Executive Director Kwajelyn Jackson, in a statement. This ban has wreaked havoc on Georgians lives, and our patients deserve better.Planned Parenthood Southeast spokesperson Jaylen Black called the ruling an egregious example of how far anti-abortion lawmakers and judges will go to strip Georgians of their fundamental rights, adding, [The ban] resulted in the devastating, preventable deaths of Amber Thurman and Candi Miller and will continue to harm Georgians as long as it is in effect. Thurman and Miller are two Black women who died in 2022 after experiencing complications from taking abortion pills. Vice President Kamala Harris and Democrats generally have pointed to similar deaths as proof of how abortion bans threaten the lives of women nationwide.Recent polling has shown that majorities of voters in almost every demographic support legalized abortion the only group that doesnt is evangelical Protestants. This issue may spell trouble for Republicans as 10states will vote on abortion-related ballot measuresin November, and the issue has typically increased Democratic turnout to the polls.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.