MEDIA ADVISORY HB 954 Senate Committee Hearing & Press Conference

March 16, 2012 - PRLog -- Press Conference - Immediately following the hearing
Monday, March 19 at 4:30 pm - Capitol Rotunda on 2nd floor

Witnesses who provided testimony in opposition to HB 954 will be available for comment.   Due to the short time permitted for opposition testimony, additional comments will be presented by women, faith leaders, lawyers, and medical professionals.

The Georgia General Assembly has been busy putting politics ahead of the health and safety of women. Considering the state of the economy, unemployment, and education, there are plenty of “kitchen table” issues that should otherwise warrant the full focus and energy of our elected officials.

Instead, there are a record number of bills nationally and locally that seek to unnecessarily restrict women’s reproductive decisions and inevitably endanger the lives of our mothers, sisters, and daughters. Our state legislators have failed to listen to the testimony of real women as they relate the impact of these bills on their lives and health as well as testimony from the Georgia OB-Gyn Society and the Georgia Academy of Family Physicians for implications of the bill on doctors and their medical practices.

HB 954 advanced out of the House without any amendments despite the testimony by Professor Tanya Washington, a Georgia State University law professor, that HB 954 is clearly unconstitutional for its failure to adequately protect women’s health.   If passed, HB 954 will inevitably reverse legally protected rights and open Georgia up for the possibility of litigation and all the state tax dollars needed to defend this unconstitutional law.

About HB 954: This bill would not only ban abortions after the 20th week, it would criminalize them with a 1 to 10 year prison sentence for Doctors deemed to be in violation with no protection for their privacy, making them vulnerable to threats and attacks. There is no exception for incest, rape, or fetal anomaly and the medical exceptions place emphasis on the life of the fetus, not on preserving the health and safety of the woman. According to the CDC, less than 1.5% nationally of all abortions in 2008 occurred after 20 weeks. The woman, in consultation with her family and her doctor should make these private medical decisions, and not politically-motivated legislators using debunked, dated scientific studies.  There is no need for the government to second-guess women and families at their most critically personal moments by imposing one-size-fits-all requirements.