MSNBC legal correspondent Lisa Rubin stopped by “Morning Joe” on Tuesday to explain the groundbreaking decision a Georgia judge made by striking down the state’s six-week abortion ban and declaring it unconstitutional by the state’s own laws.
“There is a recognition here that women are not, as [the judge] says, collectively-owned community property,” Rubin told the “Morning Joe” panel of Judge Robert McBurney’s move. “They cannot be forced to carry a fetus before viability any more than you or I could be forced to give a up a kidney. That’s a fairly radical conception of the the right to abortion. It made a lot of women I know think, ‘Oh my God. This is the end of judicial gaslighting. There is someone here who sees us.’”
McBurney — a Republican-appointed judge — issued his ruling on Monday, stating that Georgia’s Living Infants Fairness and Equality Act, or LIFE Act violates a woman’s state Constitutional rights. The development comes after activist organization SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Collective challenged the integrity of the act in a 2019 lawsuit against Georgia, nearly three years prior to the overturning of Roe. v. Wade.
In his decision, McBurney said Georgia “society” can and will only intervene once the fetus inside a woman reaches viability, per 2019’s LIFE Act.
“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. An arbitrary six-week ban on (post-embryonic cardiac activity pregnancy) terminations is inconsistent with these rights and the proper balance that a viability rule establishes between a woman’s rights of liberty and privacy and society’s interest in protecting and caring for unborn infants,” McBurney wrote.
Putting McBurney’s ruling into Layman’s terms, Rubin told host Willie Geist that the judge decided Georgia’s six-week ban being based on when a heart beat is detectable is no longer “good law” and goes against women’s rights over their bodies.
“The decision ultimately by the judge on abortion, beyond that six-week mark when a fetus heart beat can be detected, is no longer good law. And he said it’s rooted in Georgia’s own Constitution that there’s a recognition of a right to liberty. That liberty includes a liberty of privacy, and that Georgia’s own law recognizes that liberty of privacy is broader than the federal Constitutional right,” Rubin noted. “Though the state has a compelling interest in promoting fetal life, we’re balancing that against a woman’s liberty of privacy to control her own body. The state’s interest is not so compelling as to overcome the woman’s right to control her body until the fetus is viable outside that body.”
For now, women in Georgia have the option to get an abortion up to 22 weeks into their pregnancy. While there’s some breathing room for particular instances, Rubin anticipates a motion to appeal McBurney’s ruling as well as medical professionals being fearful to perform the medical procedure.
“Yeah, and I think there are some people who will be afraid to perform an abortion in the intervening time period, because this isn’t just a ban on abortion … this is criminal prohibition on abortion,” she said. “The woman herself could be prosecuted because of the way the statute is worded. That is a pernicious place to be … I want to be clear with you and our viewers. This is almost a radical decision in its recognition of the right of women to control their body. More importantly, to prevent against a sort of involuntary servitude or forced labor.”
Leave a Reply