Stacey Abrams says the decision is in line with voter suppression, and you know who was targeted there.
Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signed a “fetal heartbeat” bill this week that would effectively sentence women to life imprisonment and the death penalty if they chose to have an illegal abortion after six weeks.
Most women don’t know at six weeks that they are even pregnant.
Stacey Abrams who fought against Kemp’s policies on women’s reproductive rights, voter suppression and Medicaid tweeted:
Bad policies like the forced pregnancy bill are a direct result of voter suppression. If leaders can silence Georgians’ voices at the ballot box, they can ignore Georgians’ voices when in office. We will fight back in court and at the voting booth. #HB481 https://t.co/15iOJWaBUU
— Stacey Abrams (@staceyabrams) May 7, 2019
Racism in Healthcare Law
Interesting choice of words– “fight for life”– because there is so much flawed logic and racism here.
So pregnant inmates’ fetuses would then have independent rights, including due process. The state would be illegally holding thousands of citizens in jail without bond. Imprisonment of people (and apparently now fetuses) of color seems to be a theme in this country.
Georgia has just passed a bill granting full 14th Amendment rights to all unborn children.
As of this minute, Georgia is now holding thousands of citizens in jail without bond in violation of their rights and without a Gerstein hearing. /1 pic.twitter.com/UY40FjIG92
— Andrew Fleischman (@ASFleischman) May 7, 2019
Coincidentally (not), Georgia’s healthcare system is not looking to expand Medicaid, touting its cost, and it has one of the highest uninsured rates in the nation. Also, the state has higher medical costs than most others, and metro Atlanta is pricier than most other cities.
To add insult to injury, 100 rural hospitals in Georgia have shut down and nearly 40 percent of rural hospitals are in danger of closing since 2010, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Patients who utilize those hospitals are more likely to be underinsured.
An anti-abortion movement
Georgia’s new anti-abortion law is in direct conflict of Roe v. Wade, and the ACLU and Planned Parenthood already have plans to challenge the law in court.
Georgia is the fourth state to enact a bill like this, along with Ohio, Kentucky, and Mississippi. The state of Alabama is currently debating a bill to ban abortion outright and make it punishable by up to 99 years in prison.
All five states have less GDP than the country as a whole.
Since the beginning of 2019, more than 300 pieces of legislation have been introduced aimed at severely restricting or altogether banning access to abortion care in the United States, according to the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG).
While the law protects people who have been raped, victims of incest, and cases where the life of the mother is endangered, it pushes punishment for a population that begs the question on whether this law is really about saving lives, medicine, or health.