Democratic Party - Democratic National Committee

10/07/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 10/07/2024 15:57

Because of Donald Trump, Health Care for Millions of Georgia Women Thrown Into Chaos Arrow

Today, following the Georgia Supreme Court reinstating the extreme abortion ban Donald Trump enabled in the state, DNC Spokesperson Maddy Mundy released the following statement:

"Once again, women in Georgia have lost their fundamental right to access reproductive care and Donald Trump is to blame. Trump 'proudly' orchestrated the overturn of Roe v. Wade, and now, women are once again no longer safe in Georgia. Women in Georgia are dying under this ban. With this decision, women and medical professionals across the state are trapped in a dangerous cycle of chaos and confusion as MAGA Republicans continue to force the government in between a woman and her doctor. If Donald Trump and JD Vance reach the White House, they will enact their dangerous Project 2025 agenda and ban abortion nationwide, while threatening IVF and contraception access. Georgia voters and Americans across the country will put a stop to Donald Trump's relentless attacks on women's reproductive rights this November as they elect Vice President Harris and Governor Walz."

Trump is the reason Georgians live under a cruel law that bans abortion before many women know they're pregnant and threatens jail time. And he's proud of it.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "The state Supreme Court reinstated Georgia's restrictive abortion law, one week after a Fulton County Superior Court judge ruled the law was unconstitutional."

Trump: "I was proudly the person responsible for the ending of … Roe v. Wade."

Slate: "Georgia Just Criminalized Abortion. Women Who Terminate Their Pregnancies Would Receive Life in Prison."

"On Tuesday, Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signed a 'fetal heartbeat' bill that seeks to outlaw abortion after about six weeks. The measure, HB 481, is the most extreme abortion ban in the country-not just because it would impose severe limitations on women's reproductive rights, but also because it would subject women who get illegal abortions to life imprisonment and the death penalty."

New York Times: "Georgia Supreme Court Allows State's Six-Week Abortion Ban to Remain in Effect"

"The ruling means that abortion remains banned in the state, with limited exceptions, after the sixth week of pregnancy - a point when most women have not yet even realized they are pregnant. With North Carolina now banning most abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy, South Carolina after six weeks, and Florida doing the same, pending a legal challenge, the ruling ensures that abortion will be largely inaccessible in the Deep South, forcing women there to travel farther for care, to more distant states like Virginia or Illinois."

Washington Post: "Monica Simpson, executive director of SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, the lead plaintiff in the case, called the Tuesday decision 'devastating.'

"'This abortion ban has forced Georgians to travel across state lines at great expense or continue the life-altering consequences of pregnancy and childbirth against their wills,' she said."

Georgia Recorder: "More consequentially, it raises risks for women who want to end their pregnancies and those who help them do so. Abortion rights advocates express concerns that murder charges could be leveled against abortion patients along with conspiracy charges against people who help them."

Reporting shows that abortion bans are delaying critical emergency care across the country, leading to two women dying in Georgia.

ProPublica: "Abortion Bans Have Delayed Emergency Medical Care. In Georgia, Experts Say This Mother's Death Was Preventable."

"In her final hours, Amber Nicole Thurman suffered from a grave infection that her suburban Atlanta hospital was well-equipped to treat.

"She'd taken abortion pills and encountered a rare complication; she had not expelled all of the fetal tissue from her body. She showed up at Piedmont Henry Hospital in need of a routine procedure to clear it from her uterus, called a dilation and curettage, or D&C.

"But just that summer, her state had made performing the procedure a felony, with few exceptions. Any doctor who violated the new Georgia law could be prosecuted and face up to a decade in prison…

"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…

"Thurman's case marks the first time an abortion-related death, officially deemed 'preventable,' is coming to public light…

"But since abortion was banned or restricted in 22 states over the past two years, women in serious danger have been turned away from emergency rooms and told that they needed to be in more peril before doctors could help. Some have been forced to continue high-risk pregnancies that threatened their lives. Those whose pregnancies weren't even viable have been told they could return when they were 'crashing.'"

Georgia's abortion ban disproportionately hurts Black women - in a state where the Black maternal mortality rate is already unacceptably high.

11Alive: "It also provides a look at who the bill may impact the most: Black people, younger patients and those with less education. Researchers said with the new restrictions, many of these patients won't be able to access safe, legal abortions."

"'Lack of access to safe and legal abortion could also add to the maternal mortality rate in Georgia,' Mosley said, 'with numbers showing a possible increase of 18%.'"

"In 2019, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights, Georgia had the worst maternal mortality ratio of any state in the country. Black, American Indian/Alaska and Indigenous women are also two to three times more 'likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause than white women.' Experts said overturning Roe v. Wade will disproportionately affect communities of color in Georgia, as for years, they have already faced many barriers to maternal health."