May 09, 2019

New Georgia law effectively bans abortion in the state

located:	USA
editor:	Yair Oded

On Tuesday, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp signed into law a bill that prohibits abortion once a heartbeat is detected in an embryo, which typically occurs five or six weeks into the pregnancy. The law, referred to as the “heartbeat bill”, will go into effect on January 1, 2020, and will most likely be challenged in court by women’s rights advocates.

Georgia’s heartbeat bill effectively bans abortion across the state, seeing as by the time most women discover that they are pregnant, a heartbeat can already be detected. The law also criminalises the very act of aborting a pregnancy once a heartbeat is heard, and so doctors who do so will face criminal charges of murder. The bill excludes, however, cases in which the pregnancy resulted from rape or incest, or when the mother’s life is at risk.

During the signing, Governor Kemp remarked that the new law, “is very simple but also very powerful: a declaration that all life has value, that all life matters, and that all life is worthy of protection. I realise that some may challenge it in a court of law. But our job is to do what is right, not what is easy. We are called to be strong and courageous, and we will not back down. We will always continue to fight for life.”

It is important to clarify that Kemp’s ‘simple yet powerful’ bill is also extremely unconstitutional, as it bluntly violates the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision, which grants women across the United States the right to undergo abortion up until the point of fetal viability, which usually occurs after 24 or 25 weeks.

Several organisations, including ACLU, Planned Parenthood, and the Center for Reproductive Rights have already announced that they will challenge Georgia’s new law in court. In an interview for CBS News, the chief counsel at the Center for Reproductive Rights, Elisabeth Smith, stated "This law is bafflingly unconstitutional… bans like this have always been blocked by courts. We will be suing Georgia to make sure this law has the same fate." The executive director of ACLU in Georgia, Andrea Young, made similar comments in a statement on Tuesday, claiming that “Today's women can only thrive in a state that protects their most basic rights -- the right to choose when and whether to start a family. Georgia can't afford to go backward on women's health and rights. We will act to block this assault on women's health, rights and self-determination.”

The truth is, however, that Kemp and like-minded Republicans are eager for such laws to be challenged in court, for this is their only way to officially overturn Roe vs. Wade. Similar ‘heartbeat’ bills have already surfaced in other states, and in Kentucky, Ohio, and Mississippi were signed into law, with the primary goal of having them legally challenged and trickle all the way up to the Supreme Court. With the bench being repeatedly stacked by conservative, pro-life justices (such as the most recent addition Brett Kavanaugh), Republican governors feel confident that the Supreme Court will side with them on the matter and possibly reverse its previous decision on abortion.

"Georgia is a state that values life," said Governor Kemp at Tuesday’s bill signing. Given his party’s track record on issues such as women’s and LGBTQ rights, voting rights, criminal justice and mass incarceration, healthcare, taxes, and environmental protection policy, it is safe to say that they really do value life. As long as it’s in the womb.