Georgia Senate passes abortion race and gender restrictions bill

SB 529, a companion bill to House's Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act, HB 1155, (also called PreNDA) which would make it illegal to perform or seek an abortion because of race, gender or color of the child or the parents, passed Georgia Senate on the crossover day, Friday March 26.

If enacted, the new law will aim to ensure that no physician performs an abortion for a woman who disclosed that her decision was based on the race or gender of the child or the child’s other parent.

In addition, the physician and the clinic might face legal consequences if they solicit or coerce a woman into having an abortion because of the race of the parents or race or gender of the child.

The Senate bill was introduced by Republican Chip Pearson (R-Dawsonville). The passing vote was 33 to 15 along the party lines, with Democrats voting against it.

“This legislation would make it illegal to conduct selective human abortions based on the sex, race or color of a child,” said the sponsor of HB 1155, Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-140). “It applies the same standards of non-discrimination that is current law regarding employment, education, government and housing, to the practice of human abortion.” source

HB 1155 was signed by Republicans Barry Loudermilk, Ed Setzler, Melvin Everson, Willie Talton, and Democrats Toney Collins and Earnest Smith. Four out of the six sponsors are African-American.

Both bills define what a “criminal abortion” is :
1. when a person performs abortion with the intent to prevent an unborn child from being born based upon    race, color or gender of the child or the race or color of either parent of that child
2. when a person performs an abortion with the knowledge that the pregnant woman wants an abortion because of the color, race or gender of her child or race or color of the parent of that child
3. when a person performs an abortion with knowledge that the pregnant woman is seeking abortion as a result of coercion

The crime would be punishable by one to ten- year prison sentence. PreNDA  also says that any woman “upon whom an abortion is performed” for the wrong reasons will NOT be held criminally or civilly liable for it.“

However, the woman will be able to “recover in a civil action (...) all damages available to her under Georgia law for any torts” from the person who performed the illegal abortion or anyone else who might have coerced her to have an abortion.

The physician will have to ask questions of his patient and fill out a certificate of abortion. While talking to the woman, the doctor will have to use his judgment to determine whether she's been solicited into getting an abortion.

Various pro-life organizations, such as Georgia Right to Life, and the lawmakers who support the legislation believe the law is needed because black women have been targeted by abortion clinics for profit and also to suppress the development of the black race. Some pointed out that all the clinics around Atlanta are in urban areas, where most minorities live.

“If it is not a deliberate attempt to control the birthrate of the African-American community, then in my mind, you’d have at least one clinic in a non-urban area,” said Catherine Davis, director of minority outreach for Georgia Right to Life, who herself is African-American.

Other pro-life organizations, The Radiance Foundation and the Operation Get Outraged! from www.toomanyaborted.com started the Endangered Species Project. The project included putting up billboards around Atlanta with a picture of an African-American infant and “endangered species” sing below it to help push the legislation through Congress.

The Endangered Species Project points out that the law makers seem more concerned with a well being of certain animals or birds than with a human fetus, in this case especially a black fetus.

“Nearly 40% of all African-American pregnancies end in induced abortion.9 This is by design. Abortion kills more black people than the seven leading causes of death combined (heart disease, cancer, strokes, accidents, diabetes, homicide, and chronic lower respiratory diseases) according to CDC data.

“The African-American abortion rate is 3x that of the white population and over 2x that of all other races combined. Sounds like a crisis, doesn’t it? The media has been mostly silent. Our churches are mostly silent. But the truth screams loud and clear. Under the false liberty of ‘reproductive freedom’ we are killing our very future.” source

But the bill has a lot of opponents who believe PreNDA is simply an attempt to use race as a tool to criminalize abortion. They believe that African-American women turn to abortion more often than other races because of poverty, lack of education, inability to purchase or access contraceptives and sexual violence in the community.

Some minority and feminist pro-choice groups such as Sister Song, SPARK Reproductive Justice NOW!, SisterLove, Inc, Planned Parenthood of Georgia and Feminist Women’s Health Center teamed up to oppose the bill and bring awareness to what’s happening at the Georgia General Assembly.

The groups believe PreNDA will “prohibit women of color from accessing an abortion of their own volition.”

This point touches on one of the main reasons why some people get behind the pro-choice message: in countries or situations (such as no money) where abortion is not possible, women turn to unsafe methods of aborting the unborn rather than giving birth.

Sometimes that means getting the procedure done by people who are not licensed physicians in less than sanitary conditions, and sometimes it means a woman will try self abortion. Both situations often end with death of the fetus and/or the mother, or at least serious medical consequences.

“In order to protect the lives of women and families, abortion must remain safe, legal, affordable, and accessible,” says a memo on Sister Song website about PreNDA.

Sister Song and the cooperating organizations also question the claims made in the legislation. On its website, Sister Song states that out of 15 abortion clinics operating in Georgia, only 4 are located in a black neighborhood (50% or more black residents). They also maintain that there is no proof of physicians targeting black women for the procedures.

They also believe the bill will increase the number of medical malpractice lawsuits in Georgia. “This will increase the cost of malpractice insurance, further limiting the availability of reproductive health services in the state,” says the Sister Song website.

Because the bill states that a woman who underwent a "criminal abortion" would be able to seek damages under Georgia tort laws, it is possible that the clinics might feel threatened. After all, majority of abortions are performed on women who are in poor financial condition, therefore the temptation to accuse the doctor of coercing might be there for financial gains.

Naturally, that point might be very attractive to pro-life organizations. If doctors become afraid to go forth with the procedures because of possible legal consequences, it would mean less abortions performed.

Georgia Rep. Stacey Abrams (D-Atlanta), who has been an outspoken opponent of PreNda,  believes it “poorly defines the criminal act, fails to meet basic constitutional grounds of equal protection and relies on spurious empirical data to establish the necessity of such legislation.”  source

According to Americans United for Life, nine states currently have some form of coercive abuse prevention laws and three states have sex-selection abortion laws. The Atlantic Magazine notes that Georgia is joining seven other states in its effort to prevent sex or race-selection abortions.  source