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A Georgia law banning abortion when a fetal heartbeat is detected, typically around six weeks, cannot be enforced, a state judge ruled, a victory for Planned Parenthood and other abortion rights groups that had challenged the law.

Judge Robert McBurney of the Superior Court of Fulton County said the law could not be enforced because it was void at the time it was passed in 2019 under the U.S. Supreme Court’s since-overturned ruling in Roe v. Wade, which guaranteed a right to abortion. He said the state would have to pass the law again now that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe.

In September, FISM reported that Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams appeared to promote a wild conspiracy theory when she claimed that a fetal heartbeat at six weeks is a “manufactured sound.”

“There is no such thing as a heartbeat at six weeks,” said Abrams at the Ray Charles Performing Arts Center in Atlanta. “It is a manufactured sound designed to convince people that men have the right to take control of a woman’s body.”

Abrams lost to incumbent Republican Governor Brian Kemp, a staunch pro-life politician who will likely push for the state legislature to pass a similar, or even identical, bill if Judge McBurney’s ruling holds up to appeals.

Copyright 2022 Thomson/Reuters. Edits and additions for FISM News by Jacob Fuller.