Atlanta, Georgia Local News
Georgia Democrats warn of additional abortion rights threats under second Trump term
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On the second anniversary of the Dobbs decision, former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, and IVF advocate Latorya Beasley joined Georgia State Representative Shea Roberts, Dr. Shawana Moore plus television host Padma Lakshmi to discuss the ramifications of a potential abortion ban in a second term under Donald J. Trump.
As Thursday’s presidential debate quickly approaches here in Atlanta, Democrats along various political spectrums are centering their pushes for President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris around abortion rights.
During her remarks, former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms discussed the effects of Georgia’s ban on abortions after six weeks. She says there are young women that are refusing to go to college in Georgia because they no longer have bodily autonomy.
“I don’t think anybody wants to have to make that choice, but they want it to be their choice,” Bottoms says. “How do we deal with our own bodies, whether we’re talking about someone who’s facing a miscarriage or someone who’s facing having to go through in vitro fertilization, it’s our choice. It’s our choice. Yet, Donald Trump has decided it shouldn’t be left up to us.”
Bottoms said during the press conference that in vitro fertilization (IVF) was the only way she could have children. During the press conference, Latorya Beasley, an Alabama woman whose IVF treatments were stopped in February. At that time, the State of Alabama ruled that frozen embryos can be considered children under state law. Beasley says she was in her doctor’s office when clinics began halting fertility services.
Beasley also cautioned the public of the consequences that the nation could face if Trump wins the November 8th election.
“Alabama physicians can face up to 99 years in prison or life in prison for providing abortion care,” Beasley said. “These bans are horrific enough. Yet by overturning Roe, Trump not only unleashed attacks on abortion access, but on all forms of reproductive care, including IVF and contraception.”
Ramifications of abortion bans in the southern states
Elle Kotopoulos is the lead Administrator and Chief Financial Officer of Pilgrim Medical Center in Montclair, NJ. Abortion is legal in New Jersey. There is no limit on abortion in New Jersey based on how far along in pregnancy a woman may be. Additionally, Many private health plans in New Jersey cover reproductive health care services including abortion services.
During my interview with Kotopoulos, she admitted she has noticed not only an uptick in the patients that are coming from out of state. She also says a different type of patient has come into their offices from southern states like Alabama, Georgia and Texas.
Patients arrive at their offices with naturally occurring miscarriages with fetal demise. In many southern states, they’re forced to give birth to a dead fetus or suffer through an ectopic pregnancy.
“We’ve had a patient very recently who drove to us from out of state. She had three children, all under the age of four,” Kotopoulos explained. “And she got to our facility and she had less than $20 to feed her children. She was a later case, meaning that we had to get her done in two days because the first day we had to prep her cervix. We get her medication. We get her ready and then the following day is her surgery. She had nowhere to go. She asked our security if they would be willing to watch her car and or children while she was getting her termination. That was tragic.”
There is a spectrum of reproductive care, which is indeed part of ‘healthcare.’ At one end there are individuals fighting for abortion rights, access to birth control, including Intrauterine Devices (IUDs). On the other end, couples are looking to start families and may be struggling to do so. In the middle, there are treatments for fibroids, endometriosis, and Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS). Inside every space within the reproductive care spectrum is rife with invasive and deeply personal questions.
“And you know, these issues are a whole to be dealt with,” Kotopoulos explained. “There’s fertility treatments, there’s infertility, there’s now surrogates. There’s all of these options that you could be learning about once you figure out what’s happening. Of course, there’s times where in pregnancy nobody knows more or knows better than a woman!”
What happens next?
The Georgia Department of Public Health’s latest Maternal Mortality Report found 30.2 pregnancy-related deaths per 100,000 live births between 2018 and 2020. Georgia State Representative Shea Roberts, D-Sandy Springs, shared she and her husband had to terminate a pregnancy due to medical reasons. She says if that medical event took place today,
“Donald Trump and his MAGA minions will stop at nothing to ban all abortions without exceptions for rape, incest or the health of the mother,” Roberts said. “Trump has said he is looking at restrictions on birth control as a president. He didn’t just look into it. He took action to attack access to contraception, including by sabotaging family planning programs.”
Organizations such as Planned Parenthood, the ACLU and Reproductive Freedom for All have come together to form Abortion Access Now, starting Monday. This campaign has a ten year plan to enshrine sweeping federal protections on reproductive care. This also includes laws that make abortion not just legal but easily accessible and affordable.
Padma Lakshmi, the creator of “Taste the Nation” and a best-selling author, is an advocate for the restoration of abortion rights. Monday, she said Trump brags about overturning Roe.
“That’s why he brags about being the one that proudly overturned Roe,” Lakshmi said. “[He says] his extreme abortion bans, putting lives at risk, are working very brilliantly. There is no beauty when a woman struggles. None. Thankfully, we aren’t powerless.”
Lakshmi started the Endometriosis Foundation of America in 2009 after she struggled with the illness.
“Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, who are working to protect all our health and all our freedoms and level the playing field for everyone,” Lakshmi explained. “And on the other side: there’s a convicted felon who constantly, brazenly demeans women and sweeps away our rights. Donald Trump has no business being anywhere near the Oval Office. He never did and has no business telling women what to do with their bodies. Let me be clear, there is no democracy without reproductive rights for women.”
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