A petition started by Alyssa Milano last month, who at the time was in Atlanta shooting for the Netflix show “Insatiable,” was signed by more than 100 celebrities, including Amy Schumer, Alec Baldwin and Judd Apatow

Georgia Gov. Kemp has signed into law the state’s “fetal heartbeat bill,” a piece of legislation that would prohibit abortion after a heartbeat is detected in an embryo. That is something that usually happens between five and six weeks into a women’s pregnancy, before many women know they are pregnant.

Abortion rights advocates have called the bill an effective ban on abortion in the state.

“Georgia is a state that values life,” Kemp said at the bill signing on Tuesday morning. “We protect the innocent, we champion the vulnerable, we stand up and speak for those that are unable to speak for themselves.”

More in The battle over abortion

State Rep. Ed Setzler also spoke at the bill signing Tuesday and called the legislation a “common sense issue,” saying that a preschooler would call a six-week-old embryo a baby. He also said the legislation “tries to strike a balance” between “the interest of women who find themselves in difficult circumstances” and what he called “the right thing.”

The bill appears to be a violation of Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision that protects a woman’s right to an abortion up until when the fetus is viable, which typically happens between 24 and 25 weeks. The American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Reproductive Rights have promised to challenge the legislation long before it goes into effect in January 2020.

“This law is bafflingly unconstitutional,” said Elisabeth Smith, chief counsel at the Center for Reproductive Rights, in an email Tuesday morning to CBS News. “Bans like this have always been blocked by courts. We will be suing Georgia to make sure this law has the same fate.”

At the bill signing, Kemp recognized that the bill will likely be “challenged in the court of law” but said Georgia will “always continue to fight for life.”

So-called “heartbeat bills” like Georgia’s have become a popular tool among states looking to reduce abortion access. At least 15 states have introduced similar legislation this year and 합천출장마사지 the governors of Kentucky, Mississippi and Ohio have signed theirs into law. None of those laws have been successfully enacted, according to the reproductive health research organization the Guttmacher Institute.

Emboldened by the addition of conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, states have introduced and passed more anti-abortion access legislation than ever before, said Elizabeth Nash, a senior state issues manager at Guttmacher.

“The surge in attempts to ban abortion in the earliest stages of pregnancy underscores that the end goal of anti-abortion politicians and activists is to ban all abortion — at any point during pregnancy and for any reason,” Nash said in an email to CBS News Monday.

This year alone, state lawmakers have introduced more than 250 bills restricting abortion access, according to a study conducted by Planned Parenthood and Guttmacher last month. And six-week abortion bans, like Georgia’s, are up by 62 percent, according to the study.

Many of those restrictions have been blocked by federal judges, the first step in a long legal battle to get the legislation in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, said Nash. States can then appeal the decision, and if they’re denied again they can submit another appeal to the Supreme Court, which can choose whether or not they want to take the case, according to Nash. For conservative lawmakers interested in overturning or eroding abortion access, this appellate path is the only way to substantively chip away at Roe v. Wade, which is protected by the U.S. Constitution.

Georgia’s bill has been the target of intense scrutiny by Hollywood. A petition started by Alyssa Milano last month, who at the time was in Atlanta shooting for the Netflix show “Insatiable,” was signed by more than 100 celebrities, including Amy Schumer, Alec Baldwin and Judd Apatow. Milano wrote that if the bill passed, “we cannot in good conscience continue to recommend our industry remain in Georgia.”

The letter also noted that if members were to boycott filming in Georgia, “the cost would be most deeply felt by the residents of Georgia — including those who directly work in the film and television industry, and those who benefit from the many millions of dollars it pours into the local economy.”

At an event in March, Kemp said the entertainment industry employs 200,000 Georgians and generated more than $60 billion of economic activity for the state.

Prior to Tuesday’s legislation, Georgia politicians have already passed a host of anti-abortion access laws, according to the Guttmacher Institute. Women in Georgia are required to wait 24 hours between requesting and obtaining an abortion in the state and minors are required to notify their parents.

Related Posts

No foul play suspected in death at Clark Gable son’s home
But there are still many questions about what he was really doing there}
A statement issued by a U.N. spokesperson on behalf of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the secretary general “expresses his deepest concern at the incident” and “extends his sincere condolences to the Government and people of Turkey over this tragic loss of life.” The statement added that Ban “has repeatedly warned that the ongoing militarization of the conflict in Syria is leading to tragic results for the Syrian people.” NATO’s National Atlantic Council, which is composed of the national ambassadors, held an emergency meeting in Brussels on Wednesday night at Turkey’s request to discuss the cross-border incident. A statement on NATO’s Web site Wednesday said: “The most recent shelling on 3 October 20l2, which caused the death of five Turkish citizens and injured many, constitutes a cause of greatest concern for, and is strongly condemned by, all Allies. “In the spirit of indivisibility of security and solidarity deriving from the Washington Treaty, the Alliance continues to stand by Turkey and demands the immediate cessation of such aggressive acts against an Ally, and urges the Syrian regime to put an end to flagrant violations of international law.” Turkey, a NATO ally, is anxious to avoid going into Syria on its own. It has been pushing for international intervention in the form of a safe zone, which would likely entail foreign security forces on the ground and a partial no-fly zone. However, the allies fear military intervention in Syria could ignite a wider conflict, and few observers expect robust action from the United States, which Turkey views as vital to any operation in Syria, ahead of the presidential election in November. According to Turkey’s NTV station, the Syrian information ministry said it had launched an investigation into Wednesday’s shelling and expressed sorrow for the deaths of Turkish civilians. But it urged Turkey to prevent the cross-border infiltration of what it called terrorists. Turkey hosts more than 90,000 Syrian refugees in camps along its border, and also hosts Syrian opposition groups. There is concern in Turkey that the Syrian chaos could have a destabilizing effect on Turkey’s own communities; some observers have attributed a sharp rise in violence by Kurdish rebels in Turkey to militant efforts to take advantage of the regional uncertainty.

No comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *