Georgia legislature introduces bill to make killing preborn children a ‘right’

Attempts are being made to end Georgia’s protections for preborn babies, including a lawsuit that aims to overturn the pro-life law and a new legislative effort to make abortion a state constitutional right. Among those fighting to see pro-life protections lifted are mothers who tragically lost their children yet are exploiting their tragedies as reasons to allow any preborn child to be targeted for abortion.

Georgia’s Life Act protects preborn babies from abortion once a heartbeat is detectable (at about six weeks, though the heart begins beating and pumping blood about 22 days post-fertilization). However, the law allows induced abortion at any point in pregnancy in cases of medical emergency — meaning that if a pregnant woman is facing a medical crisis, doctors have the legal right to directly and intentionally kill her baby. Georgia defines “medical emergency” during pregnancy as “a condition in which an abortion is necessary in order to prevent the death of the pregnant woman or the substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function of the pregnant woman.” The law clearly states that it is the “physician” who “determines, in reasonable medical judgment” whether a woman’s health concern is an emergency.

In addition, while there is a 24-hour waiting period for an abortion in Georgia — that law does not apply in an emergency.

New legislation

On January 30, pro-abortion senators in Georgia introduced The Right to Reproductive Freedom Act, which “[p]roposes an amendment to the Constitution so as to provide that every individual has a fundamental right to reproductive freedom …” through fetal viability (which is an entirely subjective standard). It notes, however, that “the state may regulate the provision of abortion care after fetal viability provided that in no circumstance shall the state prohibit an abortion that, in the professional judgement of an attending health care professional, is medically indicated to protect the life or physical or mental health of the pregnant individual” (emphasis added).

In other words, up until 40 weeks of pregnancy, if an abortionist determines an abortion would protect the mother’s health, including “mental health” (an extremely broad loophole), she can legally have her baby killed — tearing or suctioning the child apart, dismembering him or her, or lethally injecting his or her heart.

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The Act further states, “The state shall not penalize, prosecute, or otherwise take adverse action against an individual based on such individual’s actual, potential, perceived, or alleged pregnancy outcome, including, but not limited to, miscarriage, stillbirth, and abortion, nor shall the state penalize, prosecute, or otherwise take adverse action against an individual for aiding or assisting a pregnant individual in exercising such pregnant individual’s right to reproductive freedom with such pregnant individual’s voluntary consent.”

The “pregnancy outcome” verbiage is troublesome because it leaves the door open to broad interpretation and, some legal experts argue, infanticide.

If approved, the Act would allow abortion up to birth in Georgia, as determined by an abortionist — and labeling abortion as a ‘constitutional right’ would make it easier to coerce medical professionals to participate in killing preborn children.

Lawsuit to block pro-life law

The Center for Reproductive Rights filed SisterSong v. State of Georgia in 2022, arguing that the state’s pro-life law protecting babies from abortion when they have a detectable heartbeat “violates the fundamental right to privacy in Georgia’s constitution.”

After the Superior Court of Fulton County blocked the law in September, the Georgia Supreme Court reinstated it, pending an appeal by the state.

Meanwhile, in January, Georgia women filed a brief in support of overturning the pro-life law, using the tragic deaths of preborn children — and in some cases, the mother as well — to justify abortion on demand. One of those women, Avery Davis Bell, shared her story with 11 Alive.

Bell’s pregnancy was high risk because of a subchorionic hemorrhage that required weekly monitoring. She ultimately became anemic, was hemorrhaging large blood clots, leaking amniotic fluid, and her water broke. She was hospitalized as a result. At this point she was 18 weeks pregnant, and her doctors told her that her condition was not emergent, but ultimately they proceeded with a D&E dismemberment abortion rather than a preterm delivery of her baby. Read Live Action News’ full fact check of her claims here.

Bell claims that the doctors took too long to decide to dismember her son, saying, “They shouldn’t have had to take anything but my health into account.” Though her son would have been too young to survive at 18 weeks, there was seemingly no reason to actively kill him by dismemberment rather than by inducing preterm labor after Bell’s water had broken. Inducing preterm labor for the purpose of a maternal or fetal emergency is not considered an abortion.

Another woman signed onto the brief who has spoken out publicly is Turiya Tomlin-Randall, the sister of Candi Miller, who died in Georgia after taking the abortion pill, which she had ordered from Aid Access. The abortion failed to complete, leaving her baby’s body or other pregnancy tissue inside of her uterus, leading to a deadly sepsis infection. It is unclear how many weeks pregnant Miller was at the time she took the abortion pill; the abortion pill’s efficacy rate has been shown to decrease as gestational age increases. If she had been provided with follow-up care, which Aid Access does not provide, she may have survived. What is unusual about Miller’s story is that her autopsy shows death as a result of drug toxicity — not pregnancy or abortion. Read the story here.

Induced abortion — intentionally killing preborn children — is not medically necessary. If a pregnancy must end, the baby can be delivered without deliberately killing him or her intentionally first. Regardless, Georgia’s Life Act allows for abortion to save the life of the mother. Attempts to overturn the state’s pro-life law or make abortion a state constitutional right have nothing to do with protecting women. Instead, these attempts play into a population control agenda, to ensure that certain children don’t make it out of the womb alive.