Georgia women should no longer suffer from anti-abortion politicians’ agenda
When I’m asked why I’ve dedicated my life to helping elect Democratic women, my mind often goes to the women of Georgia. In the four years since Republicans took a wrecking ball to women’s constitutional rights and the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, they are among the women who have suffered most.
Young mothers like Candi Miller and Amber Nicole Thurman have died preventable deaths at the hands of Georgia’s cruel, six-week abortion ban. OB-GYNs across the state have come forward to warn that the ban is wreaking havoc on Georgia’s healthcare system.
Emergency rooms are turning away women who are miscarrying. Doctors are forced to choose between withholding care from patients or losing their medical licenses. Women are opting not to seek life-saving medical treatment for fear of being persecuted. And families are shouldering the steep financial burdens of traveling out-of-state for care.
But the most horrifying part is that, amid all this harm, Republicans are dead set on pushing the needle even further. Two of those Republicans will be sitting at the top of your ballots this November: candidates Rick Jackson for governor and Brian Strickland for attorney general.
These men each played a pivotal role in ensuring this draconian reality came to be in Georgia — and they’ve made clear they aren’t stopping here.
What Jackson and Strickland said or validated about Ga. law
This spring, Jackson proudly took credit for all his “behind the scenes” work to pass the six-week ban into law, admitting he was “real pleased” to be able to play a role.
Despite all the devastation the current law has caused, he vowed that he “would absolutely confirm” an even stricter, total abortion ban if it was sent to his desk as governor.
He also agreed with extremist claims that victims should have to prove they were raped in order to get an abortion and that “two wrongs don’t make a right” about those victims seeking care. These are disturbing warning signs for what other cruelty lies ahead for Georgia women if he’s elected governor.
In 2019, as a state senator, Strickland voted for the six-week restriction — a calculated move to ensure that Georgia had a ban prepared for the very day the high court would overturn Roe v. Wade three years later.
In a recent survey for Georgia Life Alliance, Georgia’s largest anti-abortion organization, Strickland indicated that he opposes the law’s exceptions for victims of rape and incest. And he admitted that he’ll not only fight to further restrict abortion access in Georgia if elected; he’d also use the power of the attorney general’s office to meddle across state lines and impose the same cruelty on women in other states.
These aren’t leaders who have Georgians’ best interests in mind. Jackson and Strickland are driven by their own personal political agendas — and they are at stark odds with the very people they want to represent.
Democratic women are fighting to chart a path forward
Right now, families are clamoring for leaders who will address the cost of living crisis and make their everyday lives easier. The vast majority (84%) of reproductive age women in Georgia support abortion being legal in all or most cases. And yet, Jackson and Strickland are focused on stripping away the little bodily autonomy Georgia women still have under the eyes of the law.
When I’m asked why I’ve dedicated my life to helping elect Democratic pro-choice women, I not only think of Georgia women because of the torment they’ve suffered in the aftermath of losing Roe. It’s also because Georgia women are at the center of taking back power from the extremists who manufactured this situation in the first place.
As their own futures hang in the balance, Democratic women are leading the fight to chart a real path out of Republicans’ chaos and cruelty. Knowing all too well what’s at stake for Georgia women, children and families when bad actors with partisan agendas are handed power, they are running competitive campaigns for the most critical pick-up seats in the state this November — Keisha Lance Bottoms for governor, Tanya Miller for attorney general, Judge Penny Brown Reynolds for secretary of state, and many others running to help flip control of the state House.
Electing these leaders into Georgia’s halls of power is critical to a future where women’s rights are restored and protected, not further attacked; a future in which no politician can outlaw life-saving medical care because of their own extremist beliefs.
Women in Georgia have endured hell at the hands of anti-abortion politicians. Now, they are at the very heart of driving a sea-change in power this November.
Jessica Mackler is the president of EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, which works to elect Democratic pro-choice women up and down the ballot.
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