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A Georgia judge on Monday struck down the state’s abortion law, which took effect in 2022 and effectively banned abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney wrote in his order: “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 and to decide what “It happens to him and in him,” and to reject government interference in their health decisions.”

When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Roe v. Wade repealed and ended a national right to abortion, it opened the door for state bans. With a few exceptions, 14 states currently ban abortion at all stages of pregnancy. Georgia was one of four countries where the bans went into effect after about the first six weeks of pregnancy – often before women even realize they are pregnant.

The impact of the bans is being felt deeply in the South, with many people having to travel hundreds of miles to states where abortion procedures can be legally performed.

If the Georgia ruling stands, it could open up new avenues for abortion access not only for residents of the state, but also for people in surrounding states who currently face long journeys to North Carolina or Illinois.

Georgia’s law was passed by the state legislature and signed by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp in 2019, but failed to take effect until the Supreme Court ruled on Roe v. Wade repealed legislation that had protected the right to abortion for nearly 50 years.

Kemp has tried in the past to mitigate the law’s political impact by trying to focus on maternal health. On Monday he attacked the verdict.

“Once again, the will of Georgians and their representatives has been overridden by the personal beliefs of a judge,” Kemp said in a statement. “Protecting the lives of the most vulnerable among us is one of our most sacred tasks, and Georgia will continue to be a place where we fight for the lives of the unborn.”

The law banned most abortions once a “detectable human heartbeat” was present. Cardiac activity can be detected by ultrasound in cells within an embryo that eventually become the heart around the sixth week of pregnancy.

Before the law went into effect, there were more than 4,400 abortions each month in Georgia. According to the Society of Family Planning, that number has fallen to an average of about 2,400 per month since the ban went into effect in 2022.

McBurney wrote that his ruling means the law in the state is back to what it was before the law was passed in 2019.

“When a fetus growing inside a woman becomes viable, when society can assume care and responsibility for that separate life, then—and only then—can society intervene,” McBurney wrote.

An “arbitrary six-week ban” on abortions “is inconsistent with these rights and the proper balance that a rule of feasibility strikes between a woman’s rights to freedom and privacy and society’s interest in the protection and care of unborn children,” it says of the arrangement.

Also because Georgia does not offer citizens the opportunity to place initiatives on the ballot, no referendum on abortion rights is planned for Georgia’s elections this November. But that hasn’t stopped Democrats from trying to focus on abortion as an issue in Georgia as they try to appeal to suburban voters.

On September 20, Vice President Kamala Harris visited Atlanta to portray Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump as a threat to women’s freedom and lives and to warn that Trump would further restrict access to abortion if re-elected. It is also a central issue in state legislative races as Democrats seek to capture Republican majorities, particularly in the state House of Representatives.

Harris came to Atlanta after ProPublica reported that two women in the state died after failing to receive proper medical treatment for complications arising from taking abortion pills to end their pregnancies.

Democrats argue such deaths are a predictable result of laws enacted after the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade had fallen.

Harris has been outspoken on abortion rights since the Supreme Court’s decision more than two years ago, but the Sept. 20 speech was her first to focus directly on the issue since replacing President Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee had.

Amber Thurman died after waiting 20 hours for a hospital to treat complications that arose after taking abortion pills, ProPublica reported. According to the news organization, the case is the first publicly reported instance of a woman dying because her care was delayed due to a state abortion law.

ProPublica also reported on the death of Candi Miller, a woman with lupus, diabetes and high blood pressure who took abortion pills ordered online. An autopsy found unexpelled fetal tissue and a deadly combination of painkillers, ProPublica reported. The state Maternal Mortality Review Committee found that Miller’s death was not caused by the abortion drugs and, like Thurman’s, was preventable.

This story has been updated with additional reporting.