Georgia’s Republican Gov Kemp signs early-abortion ban
GEORGIA’S REPUBLICAN Governor Brian Kemp signed legislation yesterday banning abortions once a foetal heartbeat can be detected. That can be as early as six weeks, before many women know they’re pregnant.
Kemp said he was signing the bill “to ensure that all Georgians have the opportunity to live, grow, learn and prosper in our great state.”
The signing caps weeks of tension and protests at the state Capitol, and begins what could be a lengthy and costly legal battle over the law’s constitutionality.
But a legal showdown is exactly what supporters are looking for, and Kemp said “we will not back down. We will always continue to fight for life.”
Anti-abortion activists and lawmakers across the country, energised by the new conservative majority on the US Supreme Court that includes President Donald Trump appointees Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, are pushing abortion bans in an attack on the high court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, which legalised abortion nationwide until a foetus is developed enough to live outside a woman’s uterus.
Staci Fox, the president and chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood Southeast, said she has “one message for Governor Kemp: We’ll see you in court.”
Planned Parenthood’s statement says the bill “criminalises doctors who provide life-saving care” and “allows the state to investigate women for having miscarriages.” The organisation vowed yesterday to campaign to unseat the lawmakers who supported it, saying, “They will be held accountable for playing politics with women’s health.”