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AJC.com > Legislature > Georgia Beat > Archives > 2005 > February > 01 > Entry
Abortion rights activists speak out at Capitol
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Abortion rights activists at the state Capitol today said they will not sit still while Republicans chip away at the guarantees afforded women under the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision.
“We’ll do whatever it takes, because these are our bodies and our lives,” said Roslyn Satchel of the National Center for Human Rights Education.
Satchel, an African Methodist Episcopal pastor, was joined at a prayer breakfast and press conference by a handful of other clergy, a few Democratic legislators and abortion rights groups, including Planned Parenthood of Georgia and NARAL Pro-Choice Georgia. The event was a kickoff to “Reproductive Justice Lobby Week” at the Capitol, designed to draw attention to legislation under consideration.
Last week, Republican lawmakers introduced legislation they say seeks to reduce the number of women getting abortions in Georgia.
The bills would require doctors to give women information on the medical risks of abortion, the probable gestational age and development of the fetus, alternatives to abortion including adoption, and information on fetal pain. The bill would require women to wait 24 hours after receiving that information before deciding whether to move forward with the procedure. They would also require that minors seeking abortion notify a parent or legal guardian.
Abortion rights activists said the proposed laws are intended to intimidate doctors who perform legal and safe abortions and confuse and deter women seeking them.
“This is a way to backdoor and become an obstruction to what the federal government has said women are entitled to do,” said state Rep. Pam Stephenson (D-Atlanta).
Donna Oswald, 21, said she came to the Capitol today to lobby against the Republican bills. “I am deeply concerned by the new Legislature and what they’re doing to reproductive rights,” said Oswald, a recent Emory University graduate. “I don’t think Legislature should make it harder for us to get abortions.”
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