ATLANTA – An Atlanta woman told a U.S. Senate subcommittee Monday she was suffering through a doomed pregnancy last fall that was putting her health at risk, only to be told by a doctor to rest in bed and drink plenty of water.
That’s all the doctor could do under Georgia’s restrictive abortion law that essentially bans the procedure after six weeks, Mackenzie Kulik testified during a field hearing of the Senate Human Rights Subcommittee at the Fulton County Government Center chaired by Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga.
“Instead of giving me the science, my doctors told me to drink water,” said Kulik, a public health researcher who had done her own research showing her pregnancy should be terminated.
“Despite the fact that my baby was not going to make it and continuing the pregnancy posed a risk to my health, my case apparently did not qualify for an exception under Georgia’s abortion law. The only way I could get the medically necessary care was to travel to another state.”
“Our state’s abortion ban puts the lives of Georgia women at unnecessary risk and drives OB-GYNs out of Georgia, where already 50% of Georgia’s counties have no OB-GYNs at all,” Ossoff said at the start of Monday’s hearing.
Republican Gov. Brian Kemp steered the “heartbeat bill” through the GOP-controlled General Assembly in 2019, prohibiting most abortions after a fetal heartbeat can be detected, typically about six weeks into a pregnancy. There are exceptions for rape, incest, and medical emergencies.
Courts blocked the law from taking effect until 2022, after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion that had been established in the Roe v. Wade ruling in 1973.
Abortion is a key issue in this year’s presidential election, with Vice President Kamala Harris calling for Congress to codify abortion rights into law at the federal level and former President Donald Trump arguing abortion should be left to the states to decide.
At Monday’s hearing, Atlanta OB-GYN and Emory University professor Dr. Carrie Cwiak said confusion over the law and the short time it gives physicians and their patients to decide what to do about problem pregnancies is literally killing women in Georgia.
“Make no mistake, this restrictive ban has increased maternal mortality and poor health outcomes,” she said. “Because of Georgia’s abortion ban, hospitals, clinics and physicians have no choice but to turn away patients in need of essential health care. Every day that it’s in effect, Georgians suffer an assault against their autonomy and needless risk to their health and lives.”