In a year when the dominant issues were expected to be jobs and the economy, social and moral issues — namely, abortion and birth control — have reasserted themselves in the Legislature and on the presidential campaign trail. A recent burst of activity in Georgia reflects the national chatter on those issues.
A state bill that cuts the time for elective abortion from 26 to 20 weeks passed the House on Wednesday. The bill was fast-tracked from proposal to House passage in 21 days. A day later, the U.S. Senate rejected a bid to exempt religious charities and schools from providing contraception coverage in their health plans. Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum, during a Thursday campaign stop in Atlanta, attacked one of his opponents for flip-flopping on the GOP-led effort in the U.S. Senate to thwart that portion of the federal health care reform law pushed by President Barack Obama. A resolution in the Georgia Senate has been filed that would block the contraception mandate in Georgia.
The debates have motivated women on both sides to speak out.
“I can’t pay for someone to have an abortion or contraceptives,” said Janice Givens, an Alphretta mother of two who says her views are shaped by her faith. “We believe that life begins at conception. Life from womb to tomb. We don’t believe that anybody, and certainly not the president, has the right to take that away. The only one who can take that right away is God.”
Those on the other side say the state is meddling in women’s medical decisions — from on high and without input from women.
“We’re hearing from more women who are outraged by the level of government interference into reproductive health care,” said Leola Reis, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood Southeast, which is based in Atlanta. “We’re hearing everything from, ‘I can’t believe their preoccupations with women’s body parts,’ and the complete disregard of a lot of really important issues like greater access to birth control, working on the state’s economy and better programs for women and children.”
Why has this debate heated up?
“This is an election year,” said University of Georgia political scientist Charles Bullock, who said improving consumer confidence and a dropping unemployment rate have opened the door for social and moral issues to take the spotlight again.
But is it good politics? Next week Georgia voters will get their say in the Republican presidential campaign. This year the entire General Assembly is up for election.
“The attention the culture war issues are getting will be useful for politicians in upcoming campaigns,” but it is too early to predict its impact in November, said Kerwin Swint, a professor of politics at Kennesaw State University.
“I don’t know how much it’s going to motivate voters, but it’s certainly good publicity,” he said.
Publicity is what state Rep. Yasmin Neal, D-Jonesboro, got when she filed HB 1116, satirical legislation to limit vasectomies. She did it in response to the abortion bill, saying she hoped it would spur conversation. It did. National news outlets publicized it, causing her phone-message and email boxes to fill with requests for interviews by the media and “Atta-girl” messages from women across the country.
She said the response surprised her, and she believes it shows how passionate women are getting about legislation aimed at women’s bodies. Hundreds of people packed four legislative hearings on HB 954, the bill that cuts the time women can get elective abortions.
Rep. Doug McKillip, R-Athens, sponsor of HB 954, is witness to the strong feelings on display from both sides. McKillip, who called late-term abortions “barbaric,” said his bill isn’t about election-year politics but a needed discussion about when life begins.
“I think people on both sides of this are very passionate, and it draws people out to have the discussion and the debate,” he said.
But such heated debates distort basic women’s health concerns, said Heidi Williamson of SPARK Reproductive Justice Now. The idea that women can walk off the street and get a late-term abortion for example, she said, is the sort of misconception that goes unchallenged during the emotional exchanges between both sides.
Georgia’s debate is a reflection of what’s happening in the rest of the nation, she said. “It’s getting more arcane with each session.”
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