ATLANTA – Democratic leaders in the General Assembly Thursday reiterated a request they made nearly two weeks ago for Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr to issue a formal legal opinion clarifying the rights of pregnant women under the state’s strict abortion law.
Democrats criticized the Living Infants and Fairness Equality (LIFE) Act Republican Gov. Brian Kemp steered through the legislature in 2019 as vague. House Bill 481 prohibits abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected, typically about six weeks into pregnancy.
Enforcement of the new law didn’t begin until 2022, after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion.
Since then, pregnant women have been denied medical care in Georgia during miscarriages because of uncertainty among doctors over whether they could be prosecuted under the law. In one highly publicized case that became an issue on the presidential campaign trail last year, a pregnant Georgia woman died after seeking an emergency abortion.
Currently, Adrianna Smith, a pregnant brain-dead woman, is being kept on life support without her family’s consent because of her pregnancy.
“What rights do women have under this law?” state Senate Minority Leader Harold Jones, D-Augusta, said Thursday during a news conference at the state Capitol. “Georgians have been asking these questions.”
“We deserve clarity,” added Sen. Nabilah Islam Parkes, D-Duluth, who wrote the May 16 letter to Carr. “Georgians deserve laws that protect our health.”
Democrats introduced legislation this year in both the state House and Senate that essentially would have repealed the 2019 law. However, majority Republicans bottled up both in committees without a vote.
Carr responded on Thursday with the same statement he issued on the Smith case two weeks ago.
“There is nothing in the LIFE Act that requires medical professionals to keep a woman on life support after brain death,” the attorney general said. “Removing life support is not an action ‘with the purpose to terminate a pregnancy.’ “
The Democrats were accompanied at Thursday’s news conference by representatives of several abortion rights organizations including the Georgia chapter of the National Organization for Women, Planned Parenthood Southeast, and SisterSong.