The six-week abortion ban has been deemed unconstitutional.

Earlier this year, following the overturning of Roe v. Wade, several of the United States enacted new laws banning abortion procedures after a certain timeframe. Georgia’s ban, dubbed the LIFE Act, bans the vast majority of abortion procedures as early as six weeks into a pregnancy, a period when, statistically speaking, most women do not know they are pregnant.

A lawsuit against the law was filed with the Georgia Superior Court by SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, a reproductive rights advocacy group with a particular focus on the rights of indigenous women and women of color. The decision on the matter was handed down this morning by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney, who ruled that the ban is unconstitutional and must be overturned, effective immediately.

In an opinion written by McBurney following the ruling, he stressed that the conditions of the ban “were plainly unconstitutional when drafted, voted upon, and enacted.”

“…[E]verywhere in America, including Georgia, it was unequivocally unconstitutional for governments — federal, state, or local — to ban abortions before viability,” he wrote, adding that “if the courts have spoken, clearly and directly, as to what the law is, as to what is and is not constitutional, legislatures and legislators are not at liberty to pass laws contrary to such pronouncements.”

“After a long road, we are finally able to celebrate the end of an extreme abortion ban in our state,” Monica Simpson, executive director of SisterSong, said in a statement, noting that “While we applaud the end of a ban steeped in white supremacy, it should not have existed in the first place. Now, it’s time to move forward with a vision for Georgia that establishes full bodily autonomy and liberation for our communities. “