Geography and the Meaning of Life
The Irony of Georgia’s Six-Week Abortion Ban
For ten years I tried to get the Georgia courts to care about life. In my experience, working as a death penalty lawyer there, they almost never did.
When I saw a headline last fall that read, “Georgia Supreme Court Reinstates Six-Week Abortion Ban” I nearly choked on the irony.
That court, which claims to care so much about life that they’re willing to force women to proceed with pregnancies they don’t want, didn’t plan, or which puts their health or lives at risk, is the same court that repeatedly paves the way for the state of Georgia to execute living, breathing people.
Over the course of the decade I lived in Georgia, twenty-two living breathing people were executed. If only they had been six-week embryos, they might have been spared.
I live in California now, but Georgia is often, as the song goes, on my mind.
It’s where my own babies were born. I maintain many close friendships in the Peach State and try to make it to Atlanta once a year. I also keep up with the news in Georgia. Sometimes that news makes me beam with pride (I’m looking at you, Stacey Abrams), but often, it breaks my heart.
“Life” As Georgia Politicians Define It
Last year, on the eve of Thanksgiving, the Georgia Supreme Court reinstated Georgia’s near-total abortion ban. Under the “Living Infants Fairness and Equality (LIFE) Act,” abortion, with few exceptions, is banned after six weeks.
Notably, most women don’t know they’re pregnant until after the six-week mark.
Georgia’s ban, which went into effect after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last June, was one of several state laws lined up to limit reproductive rights, in anticipation of the decision. Georgia’s ban, the “LIFE” Act, hit a roadblock when an Atlanta judge ruled the ban was unconstitutional.
Noting that the law at issue was enacted and signed by Georgia’s governor in 2019, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ruled, correctly, that the law contravened the Supreme law of the land at the time: Roe v. Wade.
But with the Georgia Supreme Court’s subsequent ruling, the pendulum swung back. And since then, untold numbers of Georgians have been forced to leave the state to obtain time-sensitive, critical healthcare to terminate unwanted pregnancies or else give birth against their will.
Roe is no longer the law. Which means there is no longer any federally protected right to abortion. Thus, the Georgia Supreme Court’s ruling reinstating the LIFE Act is not entirely surprising.
Under Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the case that overturned Roe, the decision of whether, and to what degree, women retain reproductive freedom, is left to the states.
And the states have spoken. With the Dobbs decision last June and the midterm elections in November 2022, the emerging ethos around abortion has been shown to vary greatly state by state.
At present, more than a dozen states have bans on all or most abortions. Additionally, some states are seeking to tack on criminal sanctions for women who seek abortion care, providers who facilitate it, and even lay persons who offer logistical or financial support to those seeking care.
In Texas, receiving an abortion could result in homicide charges and providers could face civil fines of up to $100,000 or a sentence of life in prison for performing an abortion.
Politics vs. People
Interestingly, when the issue is put in the hands of voters, rather than politicians, the pendulum swings in the other direction. Last November, voters in five states were given the opportunity to weigh in on abortion access. And in all those states — California, Michigan, Vermont, Kentucky, and Montana — voters either chose expanded protections for abortion care or rejected restrictions on the same.
As for Georgia, and how the state defines life, I continue to be baffled at the singular focus on the idea of life.
This idea, personified in a near-total ban on abortions, coexists with its frequent and flagrant disregard for actual life.
Which brings me back to Georgia’s death penalty. In the modern death penalty era (1976-present), the state has executed 76 people. Not theoretical people, actual living individuals.
To be fair, Georgia is hardly alone in this morally murky territory. In fact, fourteen of the fifteen states that have abortion bans in effect also have the death penalty. West Virginia is the only exception.
So, what do women seeking abortions and death row inmates have in common? In nearly a third of the country, their rights to life are governed by the whims of politicians whose commitment to life ends at birth.
Lindsay Bennett is a human rights lawyer and freelance writer. As a lawyer, Lindsay focuses on a range of social justice issues. As a writer, Lindsay focuses mostly on essays and opinion pieces, like this piece in Ms. She and her two sons live in Northern California with their beloved Australian shepherd and a bunny named Pedro.
