Alternet: “Georgia’s fetal personhood law, which was signed into law by Republican Governor Brian Kemp in 2019 and initially declared unconstitutional due to protections under Roe versus Wade, was the first in the nation to effect this past June after the United States Supreme Court struck down the half-century-old provision.
House Bill 481, or the Living Infants Fairness and Equality (LIFE) Act, “bans abortion after cardiac electrical activity can be detected, usually around six weeks ― a point at which most people don’t yet know they’re pregnant. While several states have even more extreme abortion restrictions, including banning abortion from the point of conception, Georgia’s includes a uniquely terrifying clause: It recognizes an embryo or fetus as a person after six weeks of pregnancy,” The Huffington Post noted in a report on Thursday outlining the avalanche of legal chaos and “potentially harrowing consequences” that HB 481 has unleashed in the Peach State.
For example, “the termination, or suspected termination, of a pregnancy after the six-week point could be considered murder under Georgia’s law. And although there is an exception for miscarriage in HB 481, abortion and miscarriage are medically indistinguishable,” HuffPost explained. “This means the law empowers officials to scrutinize, surveil and criminalize not only women seeking abortion care, but also women with wanted pregnancies.””