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Georgia Tried to Ban Abortion, So We Sued.

Demonstrators carrying signs in favor of stopping the abortion bans
Demonstrators carrying signs in favor of stopping the abortion bans
Talcott Camp,
老澳门开奖结果 Reproductive Freedom Project
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June 28, 2019

Alabama. Arkansas. Kentucky. Ohio. And today, Georgia. That鈥檚 the list of states where the 老澳门开奖结果 has had to go to court over the last few months to challenge laws banning abortion.

The Georgia law bans abortion at six weeks of pregnancy and is in clear violation of the Supreme Court鈥檚 decision in Roe v. Wade. In fact, that is the whole point of the law. Georgia politicians, including Governor Brian Kemp, emboldened by President Trump鈥檚 appointment of two new justices to the Supreme Court, think this is their chance to get the court to take away the constitutional right to abortion altogether.

But we aren鈥檛 going back. Together, with a broad coalition of health care providers and advocates, including SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, Planned Parenthood, and the Center for Reproductive Rights, we鈥檝e asked the court to block the law before it ever goes into effect. It鈥檚 important to know that the law is not in effect now. Abortion is still legal in Georgia and we intend to keep it that way.

Taking away a person鈥檚 ability to get an abortion is inexcusable and unconstitutional. But Georgia lawmakers weren鈥檛 content to stop there. The law they passed also threatens access to a vast range of routine treatments that people need when they are pregnant. For example, a physician could face criminal prosecution for prescribing antibiotics that accidentally harm an embryo or fetus. Such a threat can only drive doctors away from treating pregnant Georgians.

Lawmakers who pushed this bill claim they want to protect life, yet the effect of this reckless law would be to endanger people. And pregnant people in Georgia already face unacceptable risks. According to Georgia鈥檚 own Department of Public Health, in the state die from pregnancy-related causes at one of the highest rates in the nation. Black people, in particular, die at three times the rate that white people do. That is so even though over 60 percent of pregnancy-related deaths in the state are preventable.

Rather than address these real threats to the well-being of Georgians, the state鈥檚 politicians have chosen to make pregnancy even riskier by subjecting doctors to criminal prosecution and interfering with a patient鈥檚 decisions 鈥 intruding where politicians have no business.

Abortion bans place people in danger, period, and Georgia鈥檚 is no exception. Whether someone seeks to terminate a pregnancy or to have a baby, the Georgia bill would strip them of their rights and needlessly expose them to harm.

With this lawsuit, we and our partners are sending a clear message to those who passed this bill: they will not succeed. We are confident that the law will not pass muster with a court, and that the authority to make important medical and life decisions will remain in the hands of Georgia鈥檚 people, not its politicians.

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