Nov 15 (Reuters) - A Georgia law banning abortion after six weeks of pregnancy cannot be enforced, a state judge ruled on Tuesday, handing a victory to Planned Parenthood and other abortion rights groups that challenged the restriction when it took effect this summer.

Judge Robert McBurney of the Superior Court of Fulton County said the law was void at the time it was passed in 2019 under the U.S. Supreme Court's since-overturned ruling in Roe v. Wade, which established a federal right to abortion.

McBurney said the state would have to pass the law again now that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe for the ban to be valid. The 2019 law was "plainly unconstitutional when drafted, voted upon, and enacted," McBurney wrote in his opinion.

The law banned abortion after fetal cardiac activity is detected, which is typically around six weeks of pregnancy, and often before a woman knows she is pregnant. It made exceptions for abortions to save the mother's life and for rape that is reported to the police.

The law was previously blocked under Roe, but it took effect in July, after the U.S. Supreme Court's June ruling gave states the power to restrict abortion.

Around a dozen states have enforced near-total abortion bans since the end of Roe v. Wade, many like Georgia in the southeast region of the United States.

The ruling on Tuesday was a win for abortion rights advocates, who argued before the judge in October that the law violated Georgians' fundamental rights to liberty and privacy under the state constitution and put women's health at risk.

Solicitor General Stephen Petrany argued at the time that the law was in line with the state's interest to protect "unborn children."

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