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In an unabashedly intrusive and dangerous new bill, state Representative Bobby Franklin has introduced legislation (HB 1) that would ban ALL abortions in ALL cases in the state of Georgia.
Of course, state legislatures are not allowed to ban all abortions in all cases due to a little thing called Roe v. Wade. However, this bill states in its “findings” section that Georgia has no obligation to adhere to the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade because
...that is just not how it works. Sorry, Georgia. Also in the bill’s “findings” section, the legislators write the following:Georgia was not a party to the suit in Roe v. Wade, and is not bound by a decision in which it did not have a right to participation;
WHAT? The General Assembly of the state of Georgia “knows the answer to that difficult question” of when life begins? This most fundamentally personal and debated question of defining human life? That should be decided by the General Assembly? By state Rep. Bobby Franklin of Marietta, Georgia?(3) Justice Blackmun, writing for the majority in Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), wrote: ‘when those trained in the respective disciplines of medicine, philosophy, and theology are unable to arrive at any consensus, the judiciary, at this point in the development of man’s knowledge, is not in a position to speculate as to the answer [to the question of when life begins].’
(4) The General Assembly knows the answer to that difficult question, and that answer is life begins at the moment of conception;
This bill seeks not only to ban abortion, but to eliminate the very concept of abortion. It strikes all legal language related to abortion or “induced termination of pregnancy” and replaces it with “prenatal murder.” It also removes mention of abortion from several other laws, seeking to erase the existence of this common medical procedure from the books entirely.
And, since apparently the entirety of the medical profession cannot be trusted with science, Georgia legislators have taken it upon themselves to redefine “fetus” for us:
I guess I went to more trouble studying than I needed to in my high school biology class, but since I did, I happen to remember that a zygote is made up of two cells. A zygote is not implanted in the uterine wall, which means that it exists days before someone is even pregnant. I wonder if Rep. Franklin has really considered the consequences of granting personhood to a fertilized egg that cannot even be detected by a pregnancy test.(1) ‘Fetus’ means a person at any point of development from and including the moment of conception through the moment of birth. Such term includes all medical or popular designations of an unborn child from the moment of conception such as conceptus, zygote, embryo, homunculus, and similar terms.
Perhaps the most egregious section of this bill relates to its proposed dealings with miscarriage. As many as 1 in 4 pregnancies end in miscarriage. 1 in 4. That is to say, miscarriage is an incredibly common experience. It is also an incredibly personal experience, and one that often happens in private spaces.
Well, personal no more, say Georgia legislators. This bill also mandates that all miscarriages be reported to the state within 72 hours with either a “report of spontaneous fetal death” or a “fetal death certificate.”
That means that if you have a miscarriage, you are required to file a report with the state government within 72 hours. And if that miscarriage occurred “without medical attendance”—in your home, for example—then a “proper investigating official shall investigate the cause of fetal death and shall prepare and file the report within 30 days.” There would be a state-sponsored investigation of the cause of your miscarriage presumably to ensure that there was no intention to end the pregnancy. This is so deeply offensive it’s hard for me to even know what to say.
I suppose I should not be shocked; it is clear that these legislators prioritize Georgia’s “prenatal citizens” above the people who actually live in the state. Yes, that’s right. This bill refers several times to fetuses as “prenatal citizens,” despite the fact that citizenship itself is literally defined by birth or naturalization later in life.
But no worries, Rep. Franklin and his cosponsors are looking out for these fetuses (or zygotes!) even if their carriers are not Georgia residents. The bill specifies that
To clarify, that “moving conveyance” they’re talking about? That’s a person’s body. To Rep. Franklin, we are truly no more than walking uteruses.(4) When a spontaneous fetal death occurs in a moving conveyance and the fetus is first removed from the conveyance in this state…the fetal death shall be reported in the state.
This legislation is deeply disturbing, and it cannot be allowed to move through the Georgia legislature. You can send Rep. Bobby Franklin an email here, or call him at (404) 656 0152 or (770) 928 0896 to let him know how egregious, offensive, and irresponsible his bill is.
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