Georgia Senate passes anti-abortion ‘heartbeat’ bill. AJC at the Gold Dome: Abortion Bill, 3/22/19, By Maya T. Prabhu, AJC
The Georgia
Senate on Friday approved what would be among the strictest abortion laws in
the country on a party-line vote after more than four hours of debate.
Earlier this
week, Mississippi’s governor also signed “heartbeat” legislation into law. Last
year, a court struck down that’s state 15-week abortion ban, calling it
unconstitutional.
House Bill 481 would outlaw abortions once
a doctor detects a heartbeat in the
womb — which is
usually at about six weeks into a pregnancy and before most women know they are
pregnant. Current Georgia law allows abortions to be performed until 20 weeks.
Georgia is poised to
become the third state in as many weeks to pass similar legislation. A federal
judge blocked Kentucky’s version of the law hours after it was signed by that
state’s governor.
Georgia’s legislation
now heads back to the House, which will have to approve changes made in the
Senate. The House narrowly passed the original bill earlier this month.
Acworth Republican state Rep. Ed Setzler, who sponsored the bill, said he is
looking forward to taking the legislation across the finish line before the
session adjourns April 2.
“We have really taken
great lengths to balance the legitimate interests of women with the basic right
to life of the child,” he said.
Democrats vowed to use
the vote to defeat Republicans in the 2020 elections.
Gov. Brian Kemp is
expected to sign the legislation if it wins final passage. He vowed during his
2018 campaign to sign the strictest abortion laws in the country.
In a statement shortly
after the vote, Kemp said the Senate “affirmed Georgia’s commitment to life.”
“I applaud the members
who supported the heartbeat bill’s passage for protecting the vulnerable and
giving a voice to those who cannot yet speak for themselves,” Kemp said.
The American Civil
Liberties Union has already said it will file a lawsuit if the measure wins
final passage.
Many Republican
lawmakers have said the bill was proposed in response to a New York law that
expanded access to abortion.
During sometimes
emotional debate Friday, Senate Science and Technology Chairwoman Renee Unterman, who shepherded the bill through the
chamber, told her story of having to get a hysterectomy when she was 22 years
old, making her unable to have children.
She later adopted two
children she was happy that women decided to carry to term. “We are not like
New York or Virginia,” she said. “We will not throw away children who aren’t
perfect because all children are perfect in the eyes of God.”
One by one, the Senate’s
Democratic women — clad in white in recognition of women’s rights and the
suffrage movement — told emotional personal stories and those of others who had
either had abortions or had problems in childbirth.
State Sen. Jen Jordan, an Atlanta Democrat, recounted her 10
pregnancies that resulted in only two children. She had eight miscarriages, one
of them when she was five months pregnant “Her name was Juliette,” Jordan said.
“I have been on my knees time after time in prayer over my losses,” she said.
“But no matter my faith, my beliefs, my losses, I have never strayed from the
basic principle that each woman must be able to make her decisions with her God
and her family.”
The measure was approved
34-18, with Unterman the only woman to vote in favor of the legislation. State Sen. Kay
Kirkpatrick of Marietta,
an orthopedic hand surgeon and the only other Republican woman in the chamber,
was excused to attend a funeral.
Democrats pointed to the
growing number of suburban women who voted in the 2018 elections, helping the
party win several seats from metro Atlanta Republican lawmakers.
“Come 2020, this bill
will help elect more women,” said freshman state Sen. Sally Harrell, an Atlanta Democrat. “Vote yes for
this bill and we’re coming for your seats because that’s how democracy works.”
After remaining quiet the past few
weeks, more than 100
local businessmen and women released a letter Friday publicly voicing their
opposition to the legislation. Several prominent medical groups, including the Medical Association of
Georgia a doctors lobby
have also urged lawmakers to defeat the bill.
Debate has been
emotional the past few weeks, with about 20 state House members turning their
backs on Setzler when he presented the bill in that chamber and hundreds of
residents filling the Capitol to lobby their elected officials.
On at least one
occasion, police escorted Unterman to her car after a committee hearing on the
bill. Bomb dogs have searched rooms before committee hearings and were roaming
the Capitol throughout the day Friday.
State police officers
were called in to Atlanta from across Georgia to be on standby, evidenced by at
least 30 cruisers parked outside the Capitol. It was the largest police
presence in recent memory during a Capitol floor debate.
Under the proposal,
women still would be able to get later abortions in cases of rape, incest, if
the life of the mother is in danger or in instances of “medical futility,” when
a fetus would not be able to survive after birth.
Someone who has become
pregnant after an incident of rape or incest would have to file a police report
to have the abortion performed.
The bill would also
allow parents to claim an embryo, once a heartbeat is detected, on their taxes
as dependents and count a fetus toward the state’s population in the census.
While an analysis of the
fiscal impact to the state has not yet been completed, Setzler said he believed
the cost to Georgia in lost tax revenue would be between $10 million and $20
million a year.
There are currently
about 20 lawsuits surrounding abortion including several heartbeat laws up for
consideration by the U.S. Supreme Court that could be used to challenge the Roe
v. Wade decision. The 1973 ruling established a nationwide right to abortion.
Georgia anti-abortion
activists hope the state’s heartbeat bill will be the one that overturns the
court’s ruling.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody
GA Tea Party Leader
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