Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) signed HB 481 into law on Tuesday. Known as the
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) signed HB 481 into law on Tuesday. Known as the “fetal heartbeat bill,” it’s the most restrictive abortion prohibition in the country. Georgia’s law is not only antithetical to settled legal standards of reproductive freedom, but is also a disastrously misguided example of simple bad lawmaking.
1. It’s obviously unconstitutional.
While people’s opinions differ about what abortion law should say, there’s plenty of agreement on what the current state of the law actually is. Under Roe v. Wade and related precedent, states are not permitted to prohibit abortion early in pregnancy. Georgia lawmakers know this and would simply like to ignore their responsibility to legislate in conformity with Constitutional law. Using public resources to debate, draft, and pass a law that directly contravenes clear, longstanding Supreme Court precedent is anything but “conservative.”
2. It goes shockingly far to punish women.
A common refrain of politicians who support restrictive abortion laws is that “doctors should be punished, but pregnant women should not.” Georgia’s new law disregard that mantra; it imposes criminal penalties on women who terminate their own pregnancies. And we’re not talking fines and community service here. The law declares that a woman who has terminated her own pregnancy is a murderer, who will face life imprisonment or even capital punishment.
The extreme consequences don’t end there, either.
