No, Georgia is unlikely to follow the lead of Texas when it comes to driving abortion clinics out of the state, as the AJC's Rosalind Bentley reports here.
Rather, any spur for new, statewide legislation in January is more likely to arise from the Saturday arrest of 23-year-old Kenlissia Jones of Albany on charges of malice murder, for ingesting an abortion-inducing pill she obtained via the Internet. The fetus survived less than an hour.
Though a misdemeanor charge for drug possession remains, Dougherty County District Attorney Gregory Edwards
citing the limitations of Georgia law.
In doing so, Edwards issued one of the most dense press releases ever, citing chapter and verse on the topic, including these passages:
The Georgia Legislature has not carved out an exception to the pregnant woman's common law immunity from such prosecutions. Applicable criminal law and statutes provide explicit immunity from prosecution for a pregnant woman for any unlawful termination of her pregnancy….
Read it for yourself here:
Note this quote in particular from Edwards, emphasis ours: "I dismissed that malice murder warrant after thorough research by myself and my staff led to the conclusion that Georgia law presently does not permit prosecution of Ms. Jones for any alleged acts relating to the end of her pregnancy."
Also consider these lines from an Associated Press follow-up on the Albany case:
Abortion rights advocates worry that this could be changing.
In March, 33-year-old Purvi Patel of Granger, Indiana, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for feticide and neglect of a baby. Prosecutors said Patel ended her 7-month pregnancy using drugs from China rather seek a doctor's help. Paltrow's group called it the first time an American woman was convicted and sentenced for trying to end her pregnancy.
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The news that U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson had Parkinson's disease but still intended to run for a third term brought a surge of rumors and conspiracy theories.
Most involved some sort of variation of the notion that Isakson would step down shortly after a re-election (he's assured reporters he would do no such thing) leaving Gov. Nathan Deal to fill the post.
Among the most-mentioned choices put forward by the tipsters are Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, his long-time ally; former Rep. Jack Kingston and his trusted chief-of-staff Chris Riley.
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Johnny Isakson's news also sparked an outpouring of support, as we lay out in the premium/dead tree version. That included an unequivocal re-election endorsement from Sen. David Perdue, Isakson's rookie delegation mate.
Here's what Perdue told Channel 2 Action News:
"He's got a long history of public service. He's my senior senator hes been a great help to my indoctrination here and my transfer into the Senate. I look forward to working with Johnny. I fully support him as our next senior senator here, and I wish him the best."
The endorsement somewhat conflicts with Perdue's current push for term limits, but what the heck.
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Former Rep. Jack Kingston, we should add, is not straying far from the public eye.
He headlines Republican events around the state, introduced party chair John Padgett at last month's GOP convention in Athens and is wading into a state House race in a solidly-Democratic district.
Kingston on Wednesday endorsed John Guest, an independent running for the Atlanta seat left open when Tyrone Brooks resigned to plead guilty to fraud charges. Guest, a businessman, was a staunch Kingston supporter in his failed bid for a U.S. Senate seat last year. The Savannah Republican recorded robo-calls for Guest and proclaimed his support for the long-shot candidate on Facebook.
Guest is the only non-Democrat among six candidates on the ballot in the June 16 special election.
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Speaking of that particular race: Tyrone Brooks Jr. has filed an appeal in Fulton County Superior Court, challenging Secretary of State Brian Kemp's decision to strike Brooks from the contest for the House seat once held by his father.
Brooks Jr. says an April 2014 change of address on his driver's license, reflecting his move into District 55, should have served as legal notification that he had moved. Click here for a copy of the document.
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The first Republican presidential debate is now a tripartite affair. From Politico:
The sudden addition of these forums, where candidates speak directly to an audience one at a time, reflects the growing pressure on Fox News to expand its debate coverage beyond the party's current criteria, which will limit the debate to the top 10 candidates according to national polls. Republicans in early states like Iowa and New Hampshire fear that such criteria will take the spotlight off their state and exclude candidates who may be popular among local voters despite low national recognition.
Joseph McQuaid, the publisher of the New Hampshire Union Leader, announcedWednesday that his paper would host its own Republican primary forum on C-SPAN on Aug. 6, in order to combat what its publisher described as Fox's "threat to the first-in-the-nation primary." Fox's decision to "'winnow' the field of candidates" ahead of the New Hampshire primary "isn't just bad for New Hampshire," McQuaid said, "it's bad for the presidential selection process by limiting the field to only the best-known few with the biggest bankrolls."
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Meanwhile, The Des Moines Register reports that the state's quadrennial August carnival might be on its way out:
The governing board for the Republican Party of Iowa will revisit going forward with the event during a conference call Friday morning, as some party officials resign themselves to the view that the much-criticized party fundraiser could potentially damage Iowa's first-in-the-nation caucuses, GOP insiders told The Des Moines Register Wednesday.
Will the death certificate list Erick Erickson as the cause?
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