In just the latest of a series of reminders for every Democrat to bring in new voters before October 11th’s registration deadline, Georgia governor Brian Kemp recently let loose on a hot mic with an astonishing lack of both empathy for and understanding of women’s reproductive issues.
Captured in a tweet that went viral a few weeks ago by Heartland Radio, Governor Kemp speaks to an unnamed student at a UGA Republicans tailgating event (UGA football – not having the best election season). He was pressed about further steps States can take to limit abortion access following July’s controversial Appeals Court ruling which allowed Kemp to restrict abortions solely to women who don’t know they’re pregnant yet. 6 weeks often isn’t enough time to realize you’ve even missed a period, let alone to make a life changing decision.
If you need a refresher:
July 2022: Appeals court allows Georgia abortion law to take effect
AP: ATLANTA (AP) — A federal appeals court overturned a lower court ruling and allowed Georgia’s restrictive 2019 abortion law to take effect immediately Wednesday. The decision was expected after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last month that there is no constitutional right to an abortion…
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The student in question supported an anti-choice position, lamenting that States with Democratic leadership have been untouched by the overturning of Roe v. Wade. In Georgia, where radical Republicans control the entire State government, the center of the party is turning their attention on what to do with all their newfound post-Dobbs power. This student was focused on banning Plan B morning after contraceptives in all of Georgia, something both intrinsic to modern healthcare and unrelated to whatever extremist ideology anti-choice proponents use to fuel their war on women. Here’s a breakdown from NPR on exactly what morning after contraceptives do.
Brian Kemp, who will be on your ballot opposite pro-choice Stacey Abrams when early voting starts October 17th, sounded open to the idea without committing to a Plan B ban before the election.
Ban Plan B? “I Think, I’d have to check and see”
Listen to his own words. Kemp pushes the boulder four months down the hill while admitting he’s open to exploring further government overreaches into private issues that should only be between a woman and her doctor.
In case you’re not familiar, Justice Clarence Thomas’s concurring opinion in the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v Jackson ruling opens the door legally for the future removal of the rights to contraception, same-sex sexual relations, and same-sex marriage.
In the coming legislative session, radical Republican lawmakers in State and Federal offices will attempt to pass the first round of challenges to reproductive health more invasive than the banning of abortion after 6 weeks. This includes banning abortion altogether and, especially after this Margaret Atwood-esque soundbite, attacks on basic contraception and morning-after pills. Governor Brian Kemp clearly does not have any understanding of how contraceptives are used in modern health care. Contraception does not solely prevent pregnancy; it is also employed to ease chronic pain conditions such as endometriosis, polycystic ovary syndrome, and hormone imbalance. These are conditions which have nothing to do with reproduction, and that are entirely suffered by women.
The party that didn’t support expanded access to child care and won’t vote for universal pre-K and can’t wait to destroy Sex-Ed in Georgia’s schools will add tens of thousands more children to its mismanaged welfare system with no provisions in place to properly care for them. You have to foot the bill. Terrified mothers have to risk their health in a State with one of the worst infant mortality rates in the country.
Black mothers have to deal with unequal Healthcare access, biased health treatment inside the delivery room, and mortality statistics well beyond any reasonable person’s definition of acceptable. 1 in 100 black babies die within their first year of life in Georgia.
And the mortality rates are much more tragic for Black women in Georgia. African American women are almost three times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause than white women in Georgia. Black mothers in rural areas of Georgia are at an even higher risk.
Racial Disparities In Health Care: Maternal, Infant Mortality Remains High In Georgia, Augusta University
Half of Latina Georgians are medically uninsured. 1 in 5 black women and 1 in 4 Hispanic women in Georgia report not seeing a doctor in the past year due to cost. As with every restriction to intrinsic American freedoms, Georgia’s abortion ban will restrict poorer, more historically underserved communities while allowing loopholes for those with money or generational wealth. Some people can take time off work, already have a passport, can buy a plane ticket at inflated short-term prices, can pay for the gas to drive to a Democratic State, can lean on family for support—some people just aren’t lucky enough. Some people might find out they’re pregnant at 7 weeks, which certainly isn’t out of the realm of possibility for a large portion of the Georgian population. If Kemp bans Plan B, women will have even less time and opportunity to make a thoughtful decision. Republicans don’t think things through.
Kemp’s misnamed “Heartbeat” Bill, which classes miscarriages as “spontaneous abortions,” will put moms who lose their children and the doctors who treat them liable to legal action. There’s no more fear-mongering, no more saber-rattling, no more pandering coming from the pro-choice side of American politics. Reality is reality.
We’re left with just one task: restore the rights of the American woman.
Go Vote Roevember!
No middle ground. Republicans will take away your rights and those of your daughters, sisters, nieces and friends. Republicans will attack the right of members of the LGTBQIA+ community to marry, to even exist at all. Women were promised for decades that a Roe-free world would never happen, that legislatures would never outright ban abortion, and that Supreme Courts would never be activist enough to rewrite its abortion rights precedent.
You have to vote Democrat all the way down the ticket this year if you want to restore rights for yourself, your neighbors, and the future women of America. There’s no room for turning back the clock; we must keep our country moving forward to avoid a permanent step backward heading into the 2030s.
YOUR Voice Matters
If you live in Fayette County or Georgia as a whole, several Democratic candidates up and down your ballot need your help to defend women’s rights. Tish Naghise will have a direct vote on a possible abortion protection bill in our State Legislature if she wins House District 68, and she supports a woman’s right to choose. At the top of the ticket, Senator Raphael Warnock is facing an opposition that wants to ban abortion nationally, without exception for rape, incest, or to save a mother’s life.
Stacey Abrams used to be pro-life. Now she’s pro-choice, because she gets it. The American woman’s return to freedom isn’t about the freedom to abort a fetus. It’s about the freedom to make her own decision. When the only thing Americans can unilaterally agree about when it comes to this issue is that we disagree with each other, why remove grey areas? Why force poor girls and women to give birth when rich girls and women can flee to safe-havens and discreet offices for thousands of dollars?
Over 55% of women live in a County without an abortion clinic in Georgia, and that number is pre-Dobbs.
Rural Healthcare access in Georgia is unacceptable. Rural reproductive Healthcare access in Georgia is unfathomable. Georgia has an all-Republican State government that plans to take further steps to harm pregnant women next year.
Voting Democrats up and down the ballot in October/November 2022 is the only way to make your voice heard if you care about preventing attacks on basic American rights.
