Five Years After the Signing of Georgia GOP’s Abortion Ban, Georgia Women Continue to Suffer

Five years ago yesterday, Brian Kemp signed into law H.B. 481, the extreme six-week abortion ban that he and Attorney General Chris Carr rushed to implement on June 24, 2022, the same day that Roe v. Wade was overturned.

“Five years after the signing of Georgia Republicans’ draconian six-week abortion ban, women’s lives are at risk, maternal mortality rates are sky-high, and physicians are forced to wait until patients are at death’s door to provide lifesaving care,” said DPG spokesperson Ellie Schwartz. “Brian Kemp and Donald Trump are proud of this abortion ban despite the suffering it has caused.”

Five years after its signing, here’s a look at how the 

Kemp-Trump extreme abortion ban is hurting Georgians:

Putting women’s lives at risk. OB-GYNs describe extreme abortion bans forcing them to wait until patients are suffering life-threatening consequences to administer medical care:

• “The way our legal teams interpreted it, until they became septic or started hemorrhaging, we couldn’t proceed…[it] puts women in a very challenging, risky position. Is a 5% risk of death enough? Does it take 20%? Does it take 50%? What is enough legally?” [Journal of the American Medical Association]

Georgia’s Black maternal mortality crisis is getting worse. Georgia already has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the country, and Black women are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than white women. 

• Studies have found that women living in states with abortion bans are up to three times more likely to die in pregnancy, childbirth, or during the postpartum period – some studies estimate up to an 18% increase in maternal mortality.
  
• When Republicans passed the 2019 ban, experts noted it would disproportionately impact women of color.
  

Doctors are afraid of being prosecuted for doing their jobs. Georgia OB-GYN says the Republican ban has created confusion, fear and distress for providers: “We can’t provide care and that can be really hard.”

Health care providers are being driven away. Studies have found that states with abortion bans in place are already seeing drops in residency applications.

Women are being forced to travel hundreds of miles to get care. With abortion effectively banned across the entire Southeast, Georgia women are forced to travel across state lines – sometimes hundreds of miles – just to get health care.

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