(ATLANTA) — The Georgia state Supreme Court reinstated the state’s six-week abortion ban on Monday after a lower court allowed abortions to resume in the state.
The ruling goes into effect at 5 p.m. ET and will remain in place while the court hears the state’s appeal, which was filed by Christopher Carr, the state’s Republican attorney general.
Justice John J. Ellington dissented in part, arguing against the ban being reinstated before the state’s appeal is heard.
“Fundamentally, the State should not be in the business of enforcing laws that have been determined to violate fundamental rights guaranteed to millions of individuals under the Georgia Constitution,” he wrote. “The ‘status quo’ that should be maintained is the state of the law before the challenged laws took effect.”
On Sept. 30, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ruled that the ban was unconstitutional, writing in his decision that the Georgia state constitution guaranteed the right to “liberty,” which includes a “woman’s right to control what happens to and within her body.” The state appealed the decision two days later.
The ban, which was signed into law in 2019 by Gov. Brian Kemp, prevents abortions from being performed once fetal cardiac activity can be defected, which typically occurs at about six weeks’ gestation — before many women know they’re pregnant — and redefines the word “person” in Georgia to include an embryo or fetus at any stage of development.
There are exceptions for rape or incest until 20 weeks of pregnancy as long as the victim has reported the crime to the police. Additionally, a patient can have an abortion up until 20 weeks if the fetus has defects and would not be able to survive or if the patient’s life is in danger.
The ban was blocked in court but was reinstated after the U.S. Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade in 2022.
“Seeing state politicians show such little empathy or respect for Georgians’ health and lives only doubles our resolve to keep fighting until every person has the freedom to make personal medical decisions during pregnancy and the power to chart the course of their own lives,” Julia Kaye, senior staff attorney with the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, a litigator on the case, said in a statement.
(BATTLE CREEK, Mich.) Hundreds of people gathered outside the WK Kellogg headquarters in Michigan on Tuesday calling for the company to hold up its promise to remove artificial dyes from its breakfast cereals sold in the U.S.
Nearly 10 years ago, Kellogg’s, the maker of Froot Loops and Apple Jacks, committed to removing such additives from its products by 2018.
While Kellogg’s has done so in other countries including Canada, which now makes Froot Loops with natural fruit juice concentrates, the cereals sold in the U.S. still contain both food dyes and a chemical preservative.
Food activist Vani Hari, also known as the Food Babe on social media, spoke to the crowd of demonstrators at the cereal giant’s offices in Battle Creek on Tuesday.
“I’m here for the moms, all the moms, who struggle to feed their children healthy food without added chemicals,” she said.
In response to the protests, Kellogg’s insisted its products are safe for consumption, saying its ingredients meet the federal standards set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The agency has said that most children experience no adverse effects from color additives, but critics argue the FDA standards were developed without any assessment for possible neurological effects.
The protests come in the wake of a new California law known as the California School Food Safety Act that bans six potentially harmful dyes in foods served in California public schools. The ban includes all of the dyes in Froot Loops, plus Blue Dye No. 2 and Green Dye No. 3.
The bill was passed by state legislators in August and signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in September.
Studies suggest that consumption of said dyes and colorants banned under the new California School Food Safety Act may be linked to hyperactivity and other neurobehavioral problems in some children, as the California Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment outlined in a 2021 report.
While there are still thousands of chemicals allowed for use in our country’s commercial food system, many of those that have been reviewed by the Food and Drug Administration have not been reevaluated for decades. Red 40, for example, was last evaluated for health risks in 1971.
Reports from the American Academy of Pediatrics align with this push to reassess the safety of artificial food coloring.
California previously made history in October 2023, when Newsom signed AB 418 into law, a first-of-its-kind bill that bans four harmful chemicals from candy, cereals, salad dressings and other processed foods in the state starting in 2027.
That law will end the use of brominated vegetable oil, potassium bromate, propylparaben and Red Dye No. 3 in food products sold throughout the state.
Photo Illustration by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
The number of cases in the E. coli outbreak linked to McDonald’s Quarter Pounders has risen to 90, federal health officials said in an update on Wednesday.
Cases have been reported in 13 states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Most of the cases have been in Colorado, which has 29 reported cases, and Montana, which has 17 reported cases, according to the CDC.
Cases have also been reported in Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming, according to the CDC, which further notes that illnesses have occurred between Sept. 27 and Oct. 16 of this year.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
The election of former President Donald Trump to a second term has put a spotlight on what his return to the White House may look like, particularly when it comes to women’s health.
Online searches for topics related to women’s health have spiked since the Nov. 5 election, particularly when it comes to birth control, Google data shows.
Searches for IUDs, birth control pills, and Plan B are trending higher than they have since June 2022, when Roe v. Wade was overturned, giving states the power to decide abortion access.
Since then, at least 14 states have ceased nearly all abortion services, and 21 states have put into effect restrictions on abortion.
The current abortion landscape combined with Trump’s comments about birth control on the campaign trail and his first administration’s efforts to roll back insurance coverage of contraceptives have led to uncertainty about what will happen in his second term.
Here are five questions answered.
1. What does the term ‘birth control’ include?
Birth control, also known as contraception, is the broad term for the act of preventing pregnancy.
The term includes everything from medicines and methods to devices and surgery used to prevent pregnancy, according to the National Library of Medicine.
One of the most widely-known and used types of contraception is the birth control pill, an oral, hormonal medication that commonly requires a prescription.
Around 14% of women in the United States between the ages of 15 to 49 currently use the pill, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
2. What did Trump say about birth control on the campaign trail?
During an interview with a Pittsburgh TV station in May, Trump was asked if he supports any restrictions on a person’s right to contraceptives.
“Well, we’re looking at that and we’re going to have a policy on that very shortly,” Trump responded with. “And I think it’s something you’ll find interesting and it’s another issue that’s very interesting.”
When asked to clarify if he was suggesting he was open to supporting some restrictions on contraceptives, “like the morning-after pill,” Trump responded, “Things really do have a lot to do with the states — and some states are going to have different policy than others.”
The former president quickly took to social media to clarify his position, claiming that he was not advocating for restrictions on contraceptives.
“I HAVE NEVER, AND WILL NEVER ADVOCATE IMPOSING RESTRICTIONS ON BIRTH CONTROL, or other contraceptives,” he wrote in a May 21 post on his social media platform.
The Trump campaign further attempted to clarify, claiming the policy Trump was referring to during the interview was mifepristone, often used in pregnancy termination. However, Trump was not asked about the abortion medication.
After winning the 2024 presidential election, Trump and the transition team have been advised on health-related appointments by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has also been in discussions to possibly fill a major role in the next administration, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
ABC News has not found public comment from RFK Jr. on the issue of birth control.
3. What happened on birth control during Trump’s first administration?
During Trump’s first term, the Department of Health and Human Services issued new rules allowing more employers to opt-out of the Affordable Care Act mandate guaranteeing no-cost contraceptive services for women.
The Supreme Court upheld the HHS decision in a 7-2 ruling in 2020, giving an employer or university with a religious or moral objection to opt out of covering contraceptives for employees.
4. As president, what power does Trump have over birth control?
As president, Trump would have the authority to order rollbacks of measures implemented by President Joe Biden’s administration to protect birth control.
As recently as October, the Biden administration announced a plan to require insurers to fully cover over-the-counter contraceptives.
In January, the administration announced several other measures to protect contraception access, including federal agencies issuing new guidance to “clarify standards” and make sure Food and Drug Administration-approved contraceptive medications are available for free under the Affordable Care Act.
Once Trump is in office, he will also have the chance to appoint Supreme Court justices if vacancies arise. During his first term, Trump appointed three justices.
Trump could also work with Congress to enact legislation on women’s reproductive rights, including birth control. Following the Nov. 5 election, control of the House of Representatives is still up in the air, while ABC News has projected that Republicans will win the Senate.
5. What has the Supreme Court said on birth control?
When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, a solo concurring opinion by Justice Clarence Thomas included a line on birth control.
In his opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that the court “should reconsider” Griswold v. Connecticut, the Supreme Court ruling that invalidated a Connecticut law that made it illegal to use birth control devices or to advise about their use.
“We have a duty to ‘correct the error’ established in those precedents,” Thomas wrote, citing the Griswold ruling among others.
ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa, Will McDuffie, Kelsey Walsh and Soo Rin Kim contributed to this report.
