Abortion defiance

Ga. DAs won’t enforce new law

District attorneys in counties around Atlanta said they will not prosecute women for getting an abortion under Georgia’s recently passed restrictive “heartbeat” abortion law.

The bill, signed into law by Gov. Brian Kemp on May 7, would prohibit abortions after doctors detect a fetal heartbeat, usually around six weeks into a pregnancy. Critics argue that is often before many women become aware they are pregnant.

“As district attorney with charging discretion, I will not prosecute individuals pursuant to [the law] given its ambiguity and constitutional concerns,” DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston said in a statement on Monday.

“As a woman and mother, I am concerned about the passage and attempted passage of laws such as this one in Georgia, Alabama and other states.”

Georgia’s law is scheduled to take effect on Jan. 1, but it is expected to be challenged because it is at odds with the Supreme Court’s 1973 landmark decision in Roe v. Wade that protects a woman’s right to have an abortion.

“As a matter of law (as opposed to politics) this office will not be prosecuting any women under the new law as long as I’m district attorney,” Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter said in a statement.

A spokesman for Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said his office, too, has “no intention of ever prosecuting a woman under this new law.”

And in Cobb County, acting District Attorney John Melvin said a woman would “absolutely not” be prosecuted under the law.