One of the most controversial bills to come up in the Georgia legislature this year was signed into state law Tuesday
Gov. Brian Kemp signed HB 481, the Living Infants Fairness and Equality (LIFE) Act, to go into effect next January, amid promises that there would be legal challenges.
(Read the text of the bill here.)
The law bans abortions in Georgia once a doctor can detect a heartbeat, which is usually around six weeks from conception.
The exceptions are for rape and incest, if the life of the mother is endangered and if a doctor determines a fetus is not viable for medical reasons.
Women also must file a police report in the case of rape or incest.
Previous Georgia law, passed in 2012, banned abortions after 20 weeks. HB 481 was sponsored by Rep. Ed Setzler, an Acworth Republican, but two of his fellow GOP colleagues from East Cobb did not support it.
Both State Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick and State Rep. Sharon Cooper, who are pro-life Republicans, opposed the bill. Kirkpatrick was out of town attending a funeral when the bill came up for final Senate action and was excused from voting. Cooper, the chairwoman of the House Health and Human Services Committee, voted no on final passage.
They said the bill is unconstitutional, and as retired medical care providers, they opposed provisions to punish OBGYNs, physician assistants and nurses (women and pharmacists also could face criminal charges).
The bill included “personhood” language for fetuses, lets parents claim an embryo as a dependent on their taxes and could order fathers to pay child support for unborn children during pregnancy.
East Cobb’s other Republican state House members, John Carson, Matt Dollar and Don Parsons, voted for the bill. Mary Frances Williams, a Marietta Democrat who represents part of East Cobb, opposed HB 481, as did Democratic senators Jen Jordan and Michael Rhett, who have slivers of East Cobb in their districts.
Georgia is one of several states whose legislatures have enacted abortion legislation in anticipation of possible action regarding Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 1973 that legalized abortion nationwide.
Some of those laws have been struck down by courts.
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