On May 7, women protested Georgia’s abortion ban outside the state capitol. Photo courtesy of National Review
On Tuesday, May 7, Republican Governor Brian Kemp of Georgia signed into state law House Bill 481, which outlaws abortions performed more than six weeks after a woman becomes pregnant. Throughout the legislative process, this law has been commonly referred to as a “heartbeat bill” because six weeks is around the time that doctors can begin to detect fetal cardiac activity in the womb. Many of the recent news stories surrounding this bill cover the negative reactions it has received from actors and movie production companies that have threatened to end filming in the state. However, the signing of House Bill 481 says less about Hollywood and much more about how America’s shifting political climate has affected the fight for women’s health.
This law is a thinly-veiled attempt at banning abortions altogether. At six weeks, many women do not yet know that they are pregnant. And so this bill would eliminate the option for an abortion for many women.
Down to its core, Bill 481 is not what it claims to be. In fact, even its name — “the heartbeat bill” — is a deception. At six weeks, as a fetus’ heart tissue is beginning to develop, doctors may detect a pulse. However, according to the New York Times, “Several medical experts, including those opposed to the new abortion restrictions, say that it isn’t medically correct to call that pulsing a heartbeat. Rather, they say, it is the vibration or ‘embryonic cardiac activity’ of the fetal pole.” This fact appears to have been overlooked by the Georgia legislators who crafted this bill.
The only people that should be making decisions about women’s bodies are medical professionals and women themselves. But, of the 34 Georgia state senators that voted to pass this bill, only one of them is a woman, and just three of them have a medical background.
On the surface, the passing of this law may not seem important, considering laws like it have been blocked by the courts. However, this law directly contradicts Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that states women have a constitutional right to an abortion before 24 weeks of pregnancy: the time period during which a fetus is not viable outside a womb.
Some southern and midwestern states, such as Ohio, Kentucky, and Mississippi, have also enacted abortion bans that contradict Roe v. Wade. These states are hoping to get their laws to the Supreme Court in the hopes that the court will overturn the Roe v. Wade decision. These new laws are being passed only recently because these states will now most likely have the support of the newest member of the Supreme Court, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, whose nomination process last year highlighted how this country disdains women and their opinions.
If these laws end up before the Supreme Court, some very dangerous things could happen. For instance, an overturn of Roe v. Wade could pave the way for the passing of bills like the one recently introduced in Alabama by state representative Terri Collins that would criminalize all abortions, with no exceptions for rape or incest. In addition, bills like the ones introduced in Alabama and laws like the ones passed in Georgia would allow for the investigation of women who had miscarriages to see if they had purposefully caused their own miscarriage in an attempt to perform their own abortion.
If laws like Georgia’s heartbeat bill end up in front of the Supreme Court, the case must not center on whether a woman has a right to an abortion, but rather on whether the government has the authority to make rulings about a woman’s body in the first place. More often than not, the people that are pushing for government regulation of women’s bodies in this country are the same ones advocating for the scaling back of government interference in Americans’ lives. If the government truly advocates for the interests of the American people, it will not continue to let these laws control women’s bodies.
