Abortion debate hits home in battleground Georgia in final weeks of voting
With Election Day approaching, abortion is a big issue for many Georgia voters. And national rhetoric and election-year politics are further upping the stakes for the abortion debate.
The procedure remains banned in Georgia after roughly six weeks of pregnancy as a lawsuit challenging the law proceeds at the state Supreme Court.
Georgia’s abortion law known as H.B. 481 took effect in 2022 following the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade and national abortion-rights protections, clearing the way for states to enact new limits on abortion.
At a press conference at the State Capitol at the time, Republican Gov. Brian Kemp celebrated the landmark ruling.
“We are overjoyed that the court has paved the way for the implementation of Georgia’s ‘LIFE Act,’” he said. “And as mothers navigate pregnancy, birth, parenthood or alternative options to parenthood like adoption, Georgia’s public, private and nonprofit sectors stand ready to provide the resources they need.”
The law bans abortion after roughly six weeks of pregnancy, when an ultrasound can detect cardiac activity in cells — and before many people know they are pregnant. It includes some exceptions, such as miscarriage and ectopic pregnancy.
Dozens of Georgia OB-GYNs have said the law’s language is unclear and interferes with providers’ ability to treat patients.
A recent ProPublica investigation has linked the ban to the deaths of two Georgia women, who investigators found were unable to access abortion and timely medical care in the state.
“Especially in light of the two recent deaths, I think women are starting to really think about who they’re going to vote for,” said Alisa Arnold at a Cherokee County Harris-Walz campaign event.
This year, access to abortion is top of mind for her and other women she knows, she said — Democrats and Republicans.
“Even if maybe they started out thinking they had to be a Republican vote,” Arnold said, “they’re starting to think, maybe that’s not the right choice this time for them.”
Democratic organizers are trying to turn out voters like her to send Vice President Kamala Harris to victory in November. Harris is promising to restore nationwide abortion rights if she’s elected to the White House.
National polls continue to show most Americans say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, the nonpartisan Pew Research Center reported.
Since the Roe ruling, 13 states across the country have enforced total bans on abortion. Another 28 restrict it at a range of gestational limits, according to abortion-rights research institute Guttmacher.
Former President Donald Trump has made contradictory statements on whether he’d support a national abortion ban.
“Most pro-lifers, while not overly encouraged or enthusiastic about Donald Trump, will still turn out because of the threat that Kamala Harris and Tim Walz represent to the cause of human life,” said Cole Muzio, president of the Georgia anti-abortion rights group Frontline Policy Action.
He said the Democratic ticket is too “radical” on abortion for many anti-abortion-rights Georgians who supported Trump in the past, referencing Christian evangelicals who supported Trump in big numbers in 2016.
That year, 8 in 10 self-identified white evangelical Christians voted for Trump, according to Pew.
Still, Muzio said voters in his coalition are looking for Trump to come out strongly against abortion access this year.
“Every vote matters. And I certainly would encourage the Trump campaign to do everything they can to motivate those that have given them a victory in the past,” he said.
At least for now in Georgia, the six-week abortion ban remains in effect as the state Supreme Court considers an appeal in an ongoing lawsuit over the state law.
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