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The governor of Georgia, Kemp, enacted the law on the "fetal heartbeat bill", a bill that prohibit abortion after the detection of a heartbeat in an embryo. This is something that usually occurs between five and six weeks after a woman's pregnancy, before many women realize that they are pregnant.
Advocates of abortion rights have called the bill an effective ban on abortion in the state.
"Georgia is a state that values life," Kemp said when signing the bill Tuesday morning. "We protect the innocent, we defend the most vulnerable, we stand up and speak on behalf of those who are unable to speak for themselves."
State representative Ed Setzler also spoke at the signing of the bill on Tuesday and described the bill as a "common sense issue", saying that a child would not be able to understand it. preschool age would call a six-week-old baby embryo. He also said that the legislation "tries to strike a balance" between "the interests of women in difficult circumstances" and what he called "the good thing".
The bill appears to be a violation of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court's landmark ruling that protects a woman's right to an abortion until the fetus is viable, which usually takes between 24 and 25 weeks. The American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Reproductive Rights have pledged to challenge the law long before its entry into force in January 2020.
"This law is incredibly unconstitutional," said Elisabeth Smith, senior counsel for the Center for Reproductive Rights, in an email to CBS News on Tuesday morning. "Bans like this have always been blocked by the courts and we will continue Georgia to make sure that this law will have the same fate."
At the signing of the bill, Kemp acknowledged that the bill would likely be "challenged in court", but said that Georgia "would still fight for life".
The "heartbeat bills" like that of Georgia have become a popular tool among states seeking to reduce access to abortion. At least 15 states have passed similar legislation this year and the governors of Kentucky, Mississippi and Ohio have signed the law. None of these laws has been promulgated, according to the Reproductive Health Research Organization, the Guttmacher Institute.
Emboldened by the addition of conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, states have introduced and enacted more laws on access to abortion than ever before, said Elizabeth Nash, head of issues government in Guttmacher.
"The intensification of attempts to ban abortions in the very early stages of pregnancy shows that the ultimate goal of politicians and anti-abortion activists is to prohibit all abortions." – at any time during pregnancy and for any reason, "Nash said in an email to CBS News on Monday.
This year alone, state lawmakers have introduced more than 250 bills restricting access to abortion, according to a study by Planned Parenthood and Guttmacher last month. And six-week abortion bans, like that of Georgia, rose 62 percent, according to the study.
Many of these restrictions have been blocked by federal judges, which is the first step in a long legal battle to get the law passed by the US Supreme Court, Nash said. States can then appeal the decision, and if they are again denied, they can submit another appeal to the Supreme Court, which can choose whether or not to take the case, according to Nash. For conservative lawmakers interested in reversing or eroding access to abortion, this appeals procedure is the only way to substantially remove Roe v. Wade, who is protected by the US Constitution.
The Georgian bill has been the subject of close scrutiny on the part of Hollywood. A petition launched by Alyssa Milano last month and which, at the time, was in Atlanta for the filming of Netflix's Insatiable Issue, has been signed by more than 100 celebrities, including Amy Schumer, Alec Baldwin and Judd Apatow. Milano wrote that if the bill were passed, "we will not be able, in good conscience, to continue to recommend our industry to stay in Georgia".
The letter also stated that if members were to boycott a shoot in Georgia, "the people of Georgia would feel the cost – including those who work directly in the film and television industry and those who benefit millions of dollars it pours into the local economy ".
At an event held in March, Kemp said the entertainment industry employed 200,000 Georgians and generated more than $ 60 billion in economic activity for the state.
Before Tuesday's legislation, Georgian politicians have already passed numerous laws on access to abortions, according to the Guttmacher Institute. In Georgia, women must wait 24 hours between requesting and obtaining an abortion and minors must inform their parents.
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