On the third anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr skipped a hearing that Democrats said was designed to gain clarity around Georgia’s abortion law.
Tuesday’s hearing came about a week-and-a-half after doctors delivered the baby of a brain-dead woman, who had been on life support for months to sustain her pregnancy.
The family of Adriana Smith cited Georgia’s abortion law as the reason their daughter had been kept alive.
But in a rare occurrence, Carr’s office issued a public statement saying Smith, who was 30 years old and nine weeks pregnant when she was declared brain-dead in February, did not need to remain on life support.
“There is nothing in the (state’s abortion law) that requires medical professionals to keep a woman on life support after brain death,” the statement said. “Removing life support is not an action ‘with the purpose to terminate a pregnancy.’”
Democrats said Carr’s appearance could have helped clear up confusion about the law.
Doctors delivered Smith’s baby via cesarean section June 13 and removed Smith from life support last week.
Georgia abortion law bans most abortions once a doctor can detect fetal cardiac activity, typically about six weeks into a pregnancy and before many know they are pregnant.
There also are exceptions in instances of rape or incest when a police report has been filed.
State Senate Urban Affairs Chair Donzella James, a Democrat from Atlanta, said Tuesday she was disappointed Carr declined to testify.
“I sent him an invitation to come and speak with us and help us understand the types of reproductive health care that’s available to the state of Georgia and all the women under this law,” she said.
James said once Carr said he would not be available, she asked that someone from his office attend in his place. She said the office declined.
A spokeswoman for Carr, who is running for governor, said he “had long-standing commitments and informed the committee weeks ago that he would not attend.
“It’s disappointing to see a serious topic overshadowed by partisan theatrics,” spokeswoman Kara Murray said.
Carr’s office has repeatedly said it is not the job of the attorney general to interpret laws for the public when asked by reporters to clarify the state’s abortion statute.
According to the state constitution, the attorney general is tasked with being the legal adviser for the executive branch of state government, providing legal opinions, representing the state in court and prosecuting public corruption.
For years, abortion rights advocates and providers have said Georgia’s law is unclear because much of the language used is not in medical terms.
For example, the law says abortions may occur if the mother is experiencing a “medical emergency,” but doctors say that’s difficult to interpret because there is no bright line between a person being fine and at risk of death.
With Carr a no-show, the committee, which is comprised mostly of Democrats, heard from patients, advocates and health care professionals about what they say is ambiguity in the abortion law. State Sen. John Albers of Alpharetta, the lone Republican on the committee, didn’t attend.
Republican leaders, who control the Senate, regularly fill the Urban Affairs Committee with Democrats and send very few bills to the panel for consideration. No bills were assigned to that committee this year. Albers is the first Republican member of the committee in more than a decade.
Kaycee Maruscsak, a 31-year-old Lilburn woman, testified that she had just held a gender-reveal party for her unborn daughter the day before finding out that the baby had no cardiac activity. But she said doctors told her they were hesitant to perform the procedure to remove her baby, who had been named Sawyer Nicole Christian, because of the state’s abortion law.
“Our health care system had no place for my situation because the restrictive abortion law ties the hands of medical professionals,” Maruscak said. “It needs to be clear what they can do and they need to be able to tell their patients what they can do and what they can’t do.
“I should not have had to wait eight days to have a dead baby removed,” she continued. “Nobody deserves that.”
Senate Democratic Leader Harold Jones criticized Carr for not participating in the committee during a news conference after the hearing.
Jones stood beside a poster of Carr on a milk carton that read, “Missing. Chris Carr, Georgia State Attorney General. If found, please direct him to the Urban Affairs Committee hearing in order for him to answer for the status of reproductive rights in Georgia.”
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