Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is blasting new “heartbeat” laws that ban abortions after six weeks as a “backdoor ban” on the procedure as a whole after Georgia became the latest state to enact such a law.
“Most of the men writing these bills don’t know the first thing about a woman’s body outside of the things they want from it,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote late Tuesday night, noting that many women are already six weeks pregnant by the time they realize they have missed a period. “So this is a backdoor ban.”
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) signed the measure, which will take effect Jan. 1, into law Tuesday.
{mosads}Georgia law previously allowed women to have an abortion in the first 20 weeks of a pregnancy, but under the new measure, doctors will be barred from performing the procedure after a fetal heartbeat is detected. Exceptions will be granted to women whose lives are at risk or if a police report has been filed relating to rape or incest. The law also makes an exception for “medically futile” pregnancies.
Multiple other states have passed such laws this year, including Ohio, Kentucky and Mississippi. Most if not all of the laws have been challenged in court.
Planned Parenthood has vowed to sue over the legislation in Georgia and other states and campaign against the state lawmakers who voted for it.
“We’re putting lawmakers on notice: your votes are far outside the mainstream and we will now spend our time and energy launching a campaign to replace you,” Staci Fox, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Southeast Advocates, said Tuesday. “That work begins now.”