Georgia
Georgia abortion ban temporarily reinstated while state supreme court considers case
The Georgia Supreme Court has temporarily reinstated a 6-week abortion ban across the state effective one week after a state court overturned the law, declaring it unconstitutional in a 26-page opinion that compared the state’s abortion ban to the Handmaid’s Tale. The 2019 ban, known as the Living Infants Fairness and Equality (LIFE) Act, will be reinstated at 5 p.m. on Oct. 7, meaning abortion will once again be inaccessible for the vast majority of Georgia residents until the state supreme court issues a decision.
More: Judge rules Georgia’s six week abortion ban unconstitutional
When the six-week abortion ban was overturned on Sept. 30, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr immediately appealed the ruling, and filed an emergency motion requesting that the state supreme court reinstate the LIFE Act while the justices considered the case. The court’s ruling today granted that injunction, temporarily preventing the lower court’s ruling from taking effect.
The renewed battle over Georgia’s abortion law is the latest development in a yearslong court case that was filed shortly after the law took effect in 2022. It comes a few weeks after reporting from ProPublica found that the law forced healthcare providers to delay medical care to pregnant patients, and linked the deaths of at least two women — Amber Nicole Thurman and Candi Miller — to the ban. The story drew national attention, with Vice President Kamala Harris visiting Atlanta to promote reproductive rights across the state.
More: Kamala Harris addresses abortion bans, reproductive rights at Atlanta rally
SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, the organization that originally filed the lawsuit challenging Georgia’s abortion ban, condemned the Georgia Supreme Court’s decision in a statement released Monday.
“Today, the Georgia Supreme Court sided with anti-abortion extremists,” Monica Simpson, the executive director of SisterSong said. “Every minute this harmful six-week abortion ban is in place, Georgians suffer. Denying our community members the lifesaving care they deserve jeopardizes their lives, safety, and health—all for the sake of power and control over our bodies.”
She also highlighted the deaths of Amber Nicole Thurman and Candi Miller, who were both women of color in a state where Black women are more than three times as likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than white women.
“The right to bodily autonomy transcends partisanship; it’s a human right that every Georgian deserves,” Simpson added. “We still believe in a Georgia where we all have the right to decide whether or not to have children and raise those children in safe, sustainable communities.”
Feminist Women’s Health Center, an Atlanta-based abortion provider that quickly resumed abortion care during the week that the ban was lifted, also condemned the ruling.
“Once again, we are being forced to turn away those in need of abortion care beyond six weeks of pregnancy and deny them care that we are fully capable of providing to change their lives,” Feminist Women’s Health Center Executive Director Kwajelyn Jackson said in a statement. “This ban has wreaked havoc on Georgians’ lives, and our patients deserve better. The state of Georgia has chosen to subject our community to those devastating harms once again, even in light of the deadly consequences we have already witnessed.”
The Georgia attorney general’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Read the Georgia Supreme Court’s order below:
Maya Homan is a 2024 election fellow at USA TODAY who focuses on Georgia politics. She is @MayaHoman on X, formerly Twitter.
CRISP COUNTY, Ga. (WGXA) — Four teenagers are facing multiple felony charges for the murder of a 20-year-old man in Cordele last month.
On Friday, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation announced the arrests of 17-year-old Bianca Armani King-Knight, 17-year-old Kaylee Posey, and 19-year-old William Troy Posey all from Crisp County and 19-year-old Trenton Donnell Lane from Wilcox County, in connection to a shooting that left one person dead and another injured on the 1000 block of Dayton Road.
The GBI identified the victim as Correnthian Jeremiah Cooks, 20, who died at a local hospital after being found shot on around 6:45 p.m. on June 27. While the other male victim received treatment and was later released.
All four teenagers were charged with one count of felony murder and three counts of aggravated assault on June 29 and are currently being held at the Crisp County Jail.
The investigation remains ongoing, and anyone with information is urged to contact the GBI Regional Investigative Office in Americus at (229)-931-2439, the Cordele Police Department at (229) 273-3102 or submit an anonymous tip online.
Stick with WGXA as we learn more and keep you ready for what’s next.
Georgia
“Operation Southern Slow Down” returns to target speeding drivers across Georgia and Florida
Heading out on the road for a little summer vacation? Law enforcement agencies across the South have a warning: Slow down or face consequences.
The ninth annual “Operation Southern Slow Down” will run from July 13 to 19 across Georgia, Florida, Alabama, South Carolina, and Tennessee.
All five states and local law enforcement agencies will be taking part in the speed enforcement and awareness campaign, which officials say is designed to prevent crashes and save lives by reminding drivers of the dangers of speeding and reckless driving.
During the time period, drivers will see more law enforcement on roads across all five Southern states.
Last year’s operation ended with nearly 53,000 citations and warnings for speeding, 2,230 for reckless driving, and over 3,000 for violating distracted driving laws. Over 1,400 drivers were arrested on DUI charges, including 501 in Georgia.
“Operation Southern Slow Down” began in 2017 in an effort to reduce crashes and save lives. Federal crash data shows that speed was a factor in one out of five fatal traffic crashes in Georgia from 2020 to 2024. A 2023 report by the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety found that over half of those killed or seriously injured in multi-vehicle crashes where speed was a factor were not the speeding driver.
“Unsafe driver behaviors like speeding are a major contributor to fatalities and serious injuries on our roadways,” said Florida Department of Transportation Secretary Jared W. Perdue, P.E. “Remember that your actions behind the wheel can have life-altering impacts: slow down and drive responsibly to help get everyone to their destinations safely.”
Authorities say drivers should always wear a seat belt and make sure to give others who are traveling at high speeds on the roads plenty of space.
ATLANTA – At least ten police officers across Georgia have been arrested and charged with misusing the Flock camera database for personal reasons, adding to growing privacy concerns about the technology.
The cameras, usually mounted to a black pole, record license plates and other data of whoever passes them.
Georgia police database tracking
What we know:
A series of recent arrests has exposed the misuse of Flock license-plate-reading cameras by police officers throughout the state.
In Greene County, Deputy Quin’sha Goss was fired on Tuesday and charged with misusing the system.
The recent arrests include five police officers in Albany, who were also charged earlier this week.
That’s alongside a lieutenant, a sergeant and a deputy in Cherokee County charged last month with violating their oath.
System audits flag searches
What they’re saying:
Flock Co-founder Paige Todd stated that many recent arrests resulted from departments utilizing a new audit assistance tool that automatically flags unusual searches.
“In this case where misuse happened, the technology itself was not creating the misuse. It was it was human beings,” Todd told FOX 5’s Rob DiRienzo.
Todd argued that the public safety benefits of the technology heavily outweigh individual instances of human misconduct.
Todd explained, “best way to prevent misuse is now, every member of law enforcement out there knows that this audit exists,”
Todd added that the system has successfully helped track down thousands of individuals across the country.
“We, I believe, solve about a million crimes with our technology,” she said. “10,000 missing people have gone home because of it. This feels like pretty small in comparison.”
Privacy concerns trigger pushback
The other side:
The ACLU of Georgia called the incidents a critical wakeup call regarding constitutional protections and tracking limits. Christopher Bruce of the ACLU of Georgia said, “Jeopardizing your civil rights and civil liberties is never just an unfortunate event. You have constitutional rights, especially a right to privacy. And the question is who polices the police?”
Information security analyst Peter Tran noted that the network relies heavily on automated data collection.
“It uses AI,” Tran said.
Tran said many are uneased by the logging searchable personal data into a nationwide database.
“It becomes a privacy and security issue. So, you’re whereabouts where you shopped, your name, your address,” he said.
SEE ALSO: Dunwoody sets ‘guardrails’ for Flock surveillance cameras use
The blowback has prompted dozens of U.S. communities to end their contracts.
Videos have circulated on social media instructing people how to tear them down or disable them.
In Barrow County, the sheriff said three Flock cameras were recently damaged there.
The sheriff said damage to the devices could be considered a felony.
The Source: The information in this story is based on original reporting by FOX 5’s Rob DiRienzo, who interviewed Flock co-founder Paige Todd, ACLU of Georgia representative Christopher Bruce, and security analyst Peter Tran, as well as tracking data from local sheriff offices.
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