Today, Governor Brian Kemp signed Georgia’s controversial heartbeat bill into law. Currently in Georgia, women are allowed to undergo abortion procedures up to their 20th week of pregnancy. Starting on January 1, the new Life Act will generally ban abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected. That can be as early as six weeks into a pregnancy when many women don’t yet know they’re pregnant.
“(The bill) is very simple but also very powerful: a declaration that all life has value, that all life matters, and that all life is worthy of protection,” Kemp said Tuesday morning before signing the legislation at the state Capitol. “I realize that some may challenge it in a court of law. But our job is to do what is right, not what is easy.”
The legislation includes some exceptions, including if the pregnancy risks the life or poses substantial and irreversible physical harm to the pregnant woman.
Supporters of the bill flanked Kemp as he signed it into law. Republican State Rep. Ed Setzler who authored the bill was among them.
“We recognize what science, law and common sense tells us today that those in utero in Georgia with a human heartbeat with a full circulatory system and all the components of humanity should get full protections of our laws,” Stetzler sais. He added that in passing the bill, the State of Georgia sought to “strike the balance between the difficult circumstances women find themselves in and the fundamental right to life of a living distinct child.”
Critics argue the new law effectively bans safe, legal abortion and criminalizes the most intimate decision women and couples make.
Several groups, including the ACLU are already preparing legal challenges to the new law.
“Today’s women can only thrive in a state that protects their most basic rights — the right to choose when and whether to start a family. Georgia can’t afford to go backward on women’s health and rights,” said ACLU executive Director Andrea Young in a written statement Tuesday. “We will act to block this assault on women’s health, rights and self-determination.”
Georgia’s Republican-majority state House passed House Bill 481, called the Living Infants Fairness and Equality Act, with a 92-78 vote on March 29. Several other states have similar legislation.
photo courtesy CNN
