Georgia Democrats were backed by abortion rights activists and groups Jan. 24 after filing a bill to repeal Georgia’s six-week abortion ban.

ATLANTA — Though the road looks to be an uphill battle, Georgia lawmakers filed legislation Jan. 24 intended to repeal Georgia’s law banning abortion after six weeks of pregnancy.

The Reproductive Freedom Act would enshrine “protections for reproductive freedom and expand access to abortion” in Georgia, supporters said at a press conference after filing the bill.

“We are bringing this legislation only two days after what would have been the 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. But even before it was overturned last year by the Dobbs decision, we knew Roe didn’t go far enough,” the bill’s sponsor, state Rep. Shea Roberts, said.

In addition to repealing HB 481, the Reproductive Freedom Act would also prevent individuals from being criminalized for pregnancy loss and protect them from potential aggressive state or local prosecution. According to the bill’s sponsors, the Act would also extend abortion care for those in rural areas by expanding the group of trained health care professionals who can provide abortion care, and by allowing more insurance plans to cover abortion care — like ACA plans, state employee plans and Medicaid.

Roberts shared her experience in terminating a pregnancy after her doctor informed her that the pregnancy was “incompatible with life” and the high risk she faced.

“Now under our current abortion ban, doctors are consulting with their attorneys before advising their patients,” Roberts said. “They are being forced to gauge when a pregnant patient is just close enough to death before administering life-saving care or being faced with potential prosecution. This is dangerous and it’s got to stop now. Abortion care is health care and it should be treated as such.”

Sen. Jason Esteves, who’s wife is a nurse practitioner and a board member of Planned Parenthood Southeast, said they’ve witnessed OBGYNs and family doctors leave the state for jobs elsewhere.

“They worry about things like how they can keep their job. How can they do their job? How can they receive the necessary training to save lives, if they are afraid that they might go to jail,” Esteves said.

Esteves said with health care providers leaving his metro Atlanta district (in Cobb County), it could have a larger impact impact on rural Georgia where hospitals have closed. He blamed such hospital closures on Republicans’ refusal to expand Medicaid.

“In fact, more than half of the counties here in Georgia are in need of OBGYNs,” said Esteves, who co-sponsored the act as one his first pieces of legislation as a newly-elected senator. “This is one of the reasons that we live in the state with the worst maternal mortality rate in the country. That’s why the reproductive freedom act is so important.”

Since 2005, Roberts said Georgia politicians have passed 13 “medically unnecessary and politically motivated” abortion restrictions — some of which included required waiting periods, insurance restrictions, and the near total abortion ban, which was approved in 2019.

Sen. Sally Harrell referenced the current plight of some children in state foster care and those in state custody being housed in hotels or in Division of Family & Children Services offices.

“Georgia has chosen to abandon these vulnerable children. As I’ve heard in the budget meetings last week, the state has to weigh many demands on how to use its dollars that are leftover,” Harrell said. “But House Bill 481 removed this very choice for our citizens who now must go through with a pregnancy regardless of their financial circumstances, personal desires or lack of support.”

More Georgia lawmakers took turns speaking in support of the Reproductive Freedom bill backed by abortion rights supporters and groups.

Ukwuoma Ukairo, a representative from Access Reproductive Care Southeast — which provides funds to access abortions to women in Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee — said they’ve helped women in those state travel farther to get an abortion in the aftermath of Roe v. Wade being overturned.

Complete abortion bans are in affect in Alabama, Tennessee and Mississippi with exceptions for medical emergencies.

“These hours of travel are hard on a pregnant person’s body but also their families,” Ukairo said. “…It is important to (say) that having to leave your state for a fundamental aspect of your health care is degradative. To say the least, it is degrading and it is a slap in the face to the brilliance that is right here in Georgia — some of the strongest doctors, a medical system that continues to advance and approach disease in a bunch of ways that show that there is knowledge here to do this work.”

Despite Republicans opposition to loosening abortion restrictions, Roberts said she hoped that Georgians would reach out to their state legislators to support the bill — especially considering that recent polls indicate that an estimated 70% of Georgians support abortion access.

“Maybe (Republicans will) start to come around because they need to… We are here to demand that this is what we want as a vision for abortion care in the state,” Roberts said.

But newly-elected Republican House Speaker Jon Burns said at press conference Jan. 19 that he would not take up action on proposed abortion legislation in the House until the Georgia Supreme Court has decided on a lawsuit that is challenging that the state’s abortion law violates the Georgia Constitution. In his role as House speaker, Burns has the authority to assign new legislation to committees and call bills for a vote.

The Supreme Court is expected to arguments in the case March 28. The session ends March 30.