Feminist Women's Health Center in Atlanta applauds Fulton County Superior Court Judge Doris Downs’ decision to provisionally suspend the new abortion law as it would have jeopardized the health of women throughout this state. The preliminary injunction granted by Judge Downs will allow women to seek abortion for any reason up to 24 weeks LMP of pregnancy.

The law, originally known as HB 954, would have criminalized almost all abortions 20 weeks after fertilization, which is more commonly known in the medical community as 22 weeks from the last menstrual period (LMP). Under the original law, the exceptions for medical emergencies were extremely narrow and would have forced Physicians to wait for a women’s condition to deteriorate to a severe medical emergency before an abortion would be a legal option. The decision to provisionally suspend this law came just in the nick of time, less than 2 weeks before 2013. Hearings are expected to begin after summer; stay tuned for more information.

• Ongoing updates & legal documents for the case “Lathrop, et al. v. Deal, et al.” from the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project
• JD Journal: State Judge Temporarily Blocks Enforcement Of Law Limiting Availability Of Midterm Abortions
• Atlanta Journal-Constitution: New Georgia abortion restrictions in doubt after judge’s ruling
• Independent Voter Network (IVN): Court’s Decision on “Fetal Pain” Bill Could Affect Other States
• Think Progress: Georgia’s Restrictive Abortion Ban Is The Latest ‘Fetal Pain’ Bill To Flounder In Court