Georgia

State Supreme Court Races Will Determine Abortion Access in Several States

PUBLISHED 10/15/2024 by | UPDATED 12/10/2024 at 1:07 P.M. PT

Since the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision gave states the authority to decide whether women can access legal abortions, state supreme courts are emerging as vital arenas in the battle over bodily autonomy. This November, 82 supreme court seats are up for an election or retention vote, across 33 states. This number includes judges who voted to uphold abortion bans in Florida and Arizona. 

(This article originally appears in the Fall 2024 issue of Ms. Join the Ms. community today and you’ll get issues delivered straight to your mailbox!)

Do You Remember the First Time You Voted?

PUBLISHED 10/9/2024 by

The first year I could vote, the choices for president were Republican Sen. Barry Goldwater or the incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson. LBJ won—the largest landslide in U.S. history. Voting for him as a first-time voter felt consequential.

This year, I’ll be voting with two very special first-time voters: my twin granddaughters, in the swing state of Georgia. Our daughters’ and granddaughters’ future is in danger.

The Life of the Mother, The Grief of Her Child: What Abortion Bans Take From Us

PUBLISHED 10/1/2024 by

A 6-year-old boy faces life without his mother, Amber Nicole Thurman, because of an abortion ban. Candi Miller died at home with her 3-year-old daughter beside her, after her teenage son watched her suffer for days, because she was too scared to seek follow-up abortion and miscarriage care. And in Indiana, Taysha Wilkinson-Sobieski, a 26-year-old mom of one, died after she could not access timely reproductive healthcare for an ectopic pregnancy.

As someone who lost my mother as a teenager and who worked with grieving children as a volunteer, I implore you to imagine the powerless feeling of watching your mother’s last moments, wishing you could save her. Imagine the rage you would feel if you knew she could have been saved, but some politician did not care enough about her life to write a clear, evidence-based law that protected it.

Supreme Court of Georgia Rules to Reinstate the State’s Six-Week Abortion Ban

PUBLISHED 10/1/2024 by | UPDATED 10/7/2024 at 11:50 A.M. PT

The Supreme Court of Georgia will reinstate the state’s six-week abortion ban starting 5 p.m. Monday, just a week after a trial court struck down the law. 

Some abortion providers in the state had resumed offering abortions past six weeks of pregnancy since the state’s lower court struck down the ban. The lower court ruling had temporarily allowed legal abortion up to 22 weeks of pregnancy. Monday’s decision means the ban will remain in effect while the case challenging Georgia’s law makes its way through the state court system.

Abortion Opponents Use Deaths of Two Georgia Women to Push Dangerous Lies About Abortion Pills

PUBLISHED 9/25/2024 by

After reports emerged that two women died as a result of Georgia’s six-week abortion ban, abortion opponents are callously using these tragic deaths to fuel false claims that abortion pills are dangerous and to push for FDA removal of mifepristone from the market.

Rather than calling on legislators to clarify life-saving exceptions, abortion opponents are doubling down on misinformation they’ve been peddling for years about the safety of abortion pills.

Abortion Bans Have Delayed Emergency Care. In Georgia, Experts Say This Mother’s Death Was Preventable.

PUBLISHED 9/17/2024 by

Tasked with examining pregnancy-related deaths to improve maternal health, a panel of experts, including 10 doctors, deemed Amber Nicole Thurman’s death “preventable” and said the hospital’s delay in performing the critical procedure had a “large” impact on her fatal outcome.

Thurman’s case marks the first time an abortion-related death, officially deemed “preventable,” is coming to public light.

Their reviews of individual patient cases are not made public. But ProPublica obtained reports that confirm that at least two women have already died after they couldn’t access legal abortions and timely medical care in their state. There are almost certainly others. Though Republican lawmakers who voted for state bans on abortion say the laws have exceptions to protect the “life of the mother,” medical experts cautioned that the language is not rooted in science and ignores the fast-moving realities of medicine.

A Georgia Law Restricts What Educators Say in the Classroom—But I Refuse to Be Silent

PUBLISHED 6/6/2024 by

Reading may be fundamental to students’ education, but according to Georgia lawmakers, this is only the case if the ideas students read do not reflect “divisive concepts.” On such matters, educators are supposed to remain silent. 

Georgia’s so-called divisive concepts law does not expressly define the term. Therefore, even those who may wish to comply with the regulation can have trouble understanding what is prohibited.

As both a mother and a college department chair, I am concerned about these and other legislative actions, which aim to silence certain ideas. My perspective as a racialized minority matters.

‘I Made the Best Decision for Me, My Body and My Family—Even My Unborn Child’: Georgia Rep. Shea Roberts’ Abortion Story

PUBLISHED 5/5/2024 by

Amidst the current attacks in the United States on women and abortion, legislators are sharing their abortion stories, demonstrating the importance of safe and accessible abortion.

Georgia state Rep. Shea Roberts (D), a mother, attorney and small business owner, had an abortion over 15 years ago, back when Roe v. Wade was still in effect. After losing her first race for the statehouse in 2018 by 1,200 votes, she went on to win her race in 2020 and has since used her platform to share her abortion story. 

Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation: Republican Women Urge Haley to Stay in the Race; Georgia Trailblazer Sen. Gloria Butler Will Not Seek Reelection

PUBLISHED 3/1/2024 by

Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation. 

This week: RepresentWomen’s Democracy Solutions Summit, March 5-7, is the only summit to feature all women experts; Republican women are urging Haley to stay in the race; Georgia state Senator Gloria Butler will not seek reelection; and more.