When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, it paved the way for Georgia’s abortion law to take effect a few weeks later. Georgia law bans most abortions once a doctor can detect fetal cardiac activity, which experts have said is often about six weeks into a pregnancy and before many know they are pregnant.

Abortions happening earlier

In the first seven months of 2022, before Georgia’s new abortion law took effect, roughly 4,000 abortions were performed each month. Since the law took effect in late July 2022, abortions are being performed at an average of about 2,200 per month, according to DPH data.

Abortions after six weeks of pregnancy have all but stopped in the state. Before Georgia’s law took effect, about 53% of abortions occurred at seven weeks of pregnancy or later. Since August 2022, about 1% of abortions occur after six weeks of pregnancy.

Abortion rights advocates say that’s because women are being more vigilant and seeking abortions sooner.

“Women are informed (about the law) and are seeking help earlier than they have in the past,” said Kwajelyn Jackson, executive director of the Feminist Women’s Health Center.

Providers said they’ve had to turn away fewer and fewer patients who may be too far along in their pregnancy.

Suki, an ultrasound technician who works at an Atlanta-area abortion clinic, said providers have begun sending women home because they aren’t far enough along in their pregnancy yet. Suki, who declined to be identified with her last name out of concern for the safety of herself, her family and her workplace, has been an ultrasound technician since 2004 and said she has worked for abortion clinics for the past 13 years. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution also interviewed her last year for a story on the role ultrasound technicians play under the state’s abortion law.

“Its detrimental to the patient because in their mind they think they’re going to be too far (along in pregnancy) when they come back,” Suki said. “It is another heartbreaking thing to have to reassure them, ‘I didn’t see anything today. But come back in a few days.’ Women are getting smarter — and they’re coming in earlier.”

Georgia’s law has also led to an increase in the use of medication abortion — versus those seeking a surgical procedure.

Setting sights on abortion pills

Nationally, medication abortion has increasingly become the preferred method for terminating a pregnancy up until 10 weeks. Those seeking to terminate a pregnancy are prescribed two pills: mifepristone, taken first, and then misoprostol.

After the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe, anti-abortion advocates set their sights on mifepristone, which health care professionals use to induce an abortion. Activists unsuccessfully tried to challenge the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the medication, which occurred in 2000.

But reports of deaths after the use of abortion pills, such as those of Georgia women Amber Thurman and Candi Miller that were highlighted last month by nonprofit news organization ProPublica, have caused Republican lawmakers to refocus their sights on outlawing the medication.

Martha Zoller, a conservative commentator who serves on the board of directors for the anti-abortion Georgia Life Alliance, said providers have downplayed the side effects of abortion pills.

“Taking those pills is not a nothing procedure where you can just go home and deal with it,” she said. “It induces a radical situation. You need to have a doctor you’re seeing about it, and it shouldn’t be done over telemedicine.”

The FDA in 2021 issued guidance that allowed abortion medication to be prescribed through a telehealth visit and sent through the mail. Georgia law, however, requires an ultrasound to determine how far along a pregnancy is before an abortion — medical or surgical — can be performed, which requires an in-person visit.

Limited use of exceptions

In Georgia, later abortions are allowed if the pregnancy falls under one of four exemptions outlined by state law — to save the life of the patient, if the fetus would not survive, or if the patient was a victim of rape or incest and filed a police report.

DPH data shows that, since the law took effect, about 300 abortions have been performed after a medical professional could detect fetal cardiac activity and under one of the state’s exceptions.

In 2023, 114 abortions were performed under one of the exceptions. Of those, 59, or 48%, were pregnancies that came as the result of rape. Those abortions were performed between six and 21 weeks, with most being done at seven weeks.

Medical providers performed 51 abortions where fetal cardiac activity could be detected, but those pregnancies were medically futile. Those abortions were performed between seven and 25 weeks’ gestation. Ten abortions were performed in 2023 to save the life of the mother. Those occurred between 10 and 25 weeks of pregnancy.

As of early September, there had been 103 abortions performed in 2024 after the detection of fetal cardiac activity. Of those, 67, or 65%, were performed because the pregnancy was futile. Five were performed to save the life of the mother.

Georgia’s abortion law is being challenged in the state Supreme Court. Last month, a Fulton County Superior Court judge threw out the state law, which he ruled unconstitutional, allowing abortions past the detection of fetal cardiac activity to resume. A week later, the state Supreme Court said the law should be in effect as the state appeals the ruling.

The court has not yet set a date for oral arguments.