Georgia Bill HB 481

This is a guest post from Samuel Holtzen, who earned his bachelors degree from GIT in 2018, has worked at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and will shortly be starting a PhD Program at UC Boulder.  Future-Dr. Holtzen, in addition to his scientific pursuits, is a musical theatre performer and an advocate for all that is just in the world.

Georgia legislature has passed HB 481, colloquially referred to as "The Heartbeat Act," effectively outlawing abortions after 6 weeks (the typical time to detect a fetal heartbeat). It will go into effect January 1, 2020.

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I have a few thoughts.

(As a preface: Contraception is cheap, readily available, and now with medical advances, easy to use. I am of the opinion that contraception should be made available without a prescription upon medical examination, as it is slowly becoming clear that this country cares more about fetuses than actual children (see: the foster care system, universal healthcare, school lunches, child immigrants, Flint’s water crisis, lack of education reform, etc))

The typical time after conception before a pregnancy can be detected in most accessible pregnancy tests is 4 weeks. Most are not detected until well after this. This (ideally) gives the person 2 weeks to make a life-altering decision, assuming they have perfect timing and regular periods.

Once a person, having luckily determined that they are 4 weeks pregnant, decides to seek an abortion, there’s the task of finding places to do it. Privileged individuals with access to healthcare would go to their doctor. Most low-income or uninsurable people do not have this option, in which case they turn to Planned Parenthood. Well, at least they would, but the current administration is pushing to defund Planned Parenthood (HR 369) by 2019. 2020 rolls around, and people suddenly have much fewer options for safe and reliable abortions without doctors. (Anyway, I stand with Planned Parenthood, but that’s neither here nor there.)

Abortions will not stop happening, even if you ban them. Say it with me.

Abortions will not stop happening, even if you ban them. They just become dangerous, poorly executed, and even fatal to the mother. Part of Planned Parenthood existence is to make abortions safe, available, and as smooth as possible for women whose lives have been turned upside down.

“Sam,” you may ask, “why don’t pregnant women just take a little road trip to another state and get an abortion?”

My answer is twofold.

1. This assumes the means of the pregnant person. To those with privilege, this may be as simple as jumping in a car and driving somewhere else. If you don’t have a car, rely on public transit, work two jobs seven days a week, or are otherwise tethered to Georgia, you’re shit outta luck.

2. In the previous versions, there’s this fun little provision, at the end, real sneaky-like, where the legislators added that the abortion of the fetus, outside of any exceptions —medical or otherwise— would be akin to homicide and carry the weight of second degree murder (equivalent to 10-20 years in prison). This is no longer in the final version of the bill, but the fact that it was in there at all is frankly terrifying.

You made it this far, so I’m issuing a call to action:

Write your senators. Listen to your candidate’s platform. Don’t look at party, look at ethics and track record. Vote. And for God sakes, be kind to each other.