![]() “Perspective is important here,” Smith said. According to Elisabeth Smith, chief counsel for state policy and advocacy at the Center for Reproductive rights, all of the “heartbeat bills” are likely to face litigation. None of the other six-week bans have been enforced yet because the legislation is unconstitutional, and thus unlikely to survive legal challenges. The bill is now headed to the governor’s desk, and he is expected to sign it into law.īut like in Mississippi and Kentucky, its passage does not necessarily mean that the severe restrictions can be enforced. Governor Kemp has sworn to sign it into law, but it’s unlikely to take effect immediately. For the former, a woman must provide a police report about the incident, which means she would be required to involve law enforcement in her personal, medical decision. The only exceptions are if there is a documented medical emergency, or if a woman is the victim of rape or incest. Under the law, physicians performing abortions would be required “to determine the existence of a detectable human heartbeat before performing an abortion,” a process that often requires an invasive transvaginal ultrasound. (Georgia already bans abortions after 20 weeks.) The LIFE Act would redefine who is considered to be “natural persons” under the law to “include an unborn child.” Giving this status to an embryo allows for the possibility to prosecute women and health-care providers for abortions conducted after a heartbeat is detected – or a month and a half into a pregnancy, when the embryo is about the size of a pomegranate seed. The bill would ban all abortions after six weeks. “This is part of an unrelenting and sustained attack on abortion rights.”īelow, everything we know about the Georgia bill, and how it fits into a larger attack on reproductive rights in the United States. This “gives you a sense of how this is ramping up,” Elizabeth Nash of the Guttmacher Institute said. If the bill - known as HB481, or the Living Infants Fairness and Equality (LIFE) Act - becomes law, Georgia will join Kentucky and Mississippi in passing some of the most Draconian abortion restrictions in the country both states have passed six-week bans of their own in recent weeks, though neither has taken effect yet, and both face judicial challenges from civil rights and reproductive-justice organizations.Įven more worryingly, this is far from an isolated incident: According to Yahoo! News, legislatures in more than a dozen states are considering similar provisions -a 63 percent increase from last year. I thank these lawmakers for their leadership and applaud their undeniable courage. The legislature’s bold action reaffirms our priorities and who we are as a state. We stand up for the innocent and speak for those who cannot speak for themselves. “I thank these lawmakers for their leadership and applaud their undeniable courage.” We stand up for the innocent and speak for those who cannot speak for themselves,” he tweeted shortly after the bill passed the House on Friday. ![]() Governor Kemp has indicated that he intends to sign it when it crosses his desk. ![]() On March 22, the state Senate passed a so-called “fetal heartbeat bill,” earning rapturous praise from the vehemently anti-abortion Governor Brian Kemp a week later, it passed the House as well. Georgia soon could become the third state this year to pass a law banning abortion at six weeks - long before most women even realize they’re pregnant. ![]() Photo: Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images
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