As Kemp Campaigns with Extreme Anti-Abortion Senators, Crucial Questions Remain Unanswered

As Gov. Brian Kemp campaigns today with Senator Mitch McConnell and 16 other U.S. Senators who support a national ban on abortion and making abortion illegal with no exceptions, State Senator Elena Parent and Dr. Kelly Coffman raised crucial questions the governor has refused to answer.

Kemp supports outlawing abortion with no exceptions for survivors of rape or incest, and has repeatedly refused to answer crucial quesitons on how his extreme abortion ban could lead to investigations of women and prosecutions of doctors for seeking and providing abortion care.

Watch and download footage of the press conference here, which features the full remarks from each speaker.

“As we speak, Brian Kemp is campaigning with Mitch McConnell and a group of Republican U.S. Senators who want to either ban abortion at the national level or make aboriton illegal with no exceptions. These views are extreme and dangerous, and out of step with the majority of Georgians and Americans,” said State Senator Elena Parent. “Kemp has already stated his belief that abortion should be outlawed with no exceptions for survivors of rape or incest. Disturbingly, he has repeatedly refused to answer crucial quesitons on how his extreme abortion ban could lead to investigations of women and prosecutions of doctors for seeking and providing abortion care. So now as Kemp joins a group of extremists who want to roll back the rights of millions of Americans, Georgians deserve answers on questions that could impact their health, lives, and freedom.”

“Brian Kemp is still refusing to answer critical questions about his dangerous aboriton ban — even as doctors and legal experts have been begging for answers as we try to navigate its far-reaching implications. I have patients who are planning a pregnancy and are currently pregnant and they are terrified. I have patients who desperately want to get pregnant but they’re afraid to do so, because they fear a miscarriage and what might happen…and doctors are afraid because we don’t know how to answer these questions for our patients,” stated Dr. Kelly Coffman, MD, MPH, Reproductive and Forensic Psychiatrist and Democratic nominee for Georgia State House District 53. “Kemp has shown just how extreme he is on this issue — saying that he believes abortion should be banned with no exceptions for rape or incest. Let that sink in, under Kemp’s agenda, victims of rape or incest could be forced to give birth — and he won’t rule out going further if he’s re-elected.”

With Kemp’s dangerous ban on abortion still posing many unknowns, speakers raised crucial questions the governor has been refusing to answer for seven weeks after his extreme law took effect:

• Does Brian Kemp support a national ban on abortion or a complete ban on abortion — with no exceptions even to save the life of the mother — like the extremist senators he’s campaigning with?

• If re-elected, will Kemp go further and make abortion illegal with no exceptions for victims of rape or incest?

• Will women be investigated for miscarriages?

• Could women be prosecuted for traveling to another state to seek an abortion?

• Will health care providers be prosecuted for providing care that they consider necessary due to a medical emergency – but that violates Kemp’s abortion ban?

• If a pregnancy is not viable, does a doctor have to wait for the patient to develop an infection instead of intervening before she gets sick? How sick is sick enough to intervene?

• Can women who get an abortion be charged for murder? For example, if a woman takes prescribed medicine from an out-of-state doctor for a non-surgical abortion, has she now committed murder under Georgia law?

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