By Sara Amis, Contributor
Atlanta, GA – Following the June 24 decision of the United States Supreme Court in which Roe v. Wade was lifted, both the business community and Georgia Democrats are trying to navigate the future in a changing legal and political landscape.
The Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health decision overturned 50 years of precedent protecting abortion as a constitutional right in the US.
Georgian Democrats held a press conference on Monday, June 27 to discuss the implications of the Supreme Court decision.
Congresswoman Nikema Williams, leader of Georgia’s Democratic Party and former vice president of public policy at Planned Parenthood Southeast, called the decision a disaster with which 68% of Georgians disagree.
Despite the lack of popular support, Georgia’s six-week abortion ban, currently under appeal, is one of the most restrictive in the country.
“This disastrous decision in Dobbs v. Jackson paves the way for Republicans to reverse women’s fundamental rights to make their own health decisions, including here in Georgia,” Williams said.
State Senator Jen Jordan, the Democratic nominee for Georgia Attorney General, said she will not defend Georgia’s abortion ban because she believes it is unconstitutional, both at the federal and state levels.
“You can’t tell me you’ve had a federal constitutional right for over half a century and then in one day it’s gone,” Jordan said. “This has never happened in the history of our country.”
Jordan believes a potentially stronger argument can be made at the state level. The American Civil Liberties Union plans to file a new lawsuit challenging the law under the state constitution. Jordan pointed out that the Georgia state constitution has stronger privacy protections than the US constitution, which has been reaffirmed many times.
“There is absolutely a viable way to challenge this under the Georgia Constitution,” Jordan said. “That’s what the Supreme Court said we have to do to put it in the hands of Georgia state voters.”
“State elections are where the fight is,” Jordan added.
While some anti-abortion activists have urged the Georgia legislature to include a ban on abortion in the state constitution, Jordan said it was unlikely.
“They need a two-thirds majority and they don’t have that,” Jordan said.
Jordan pointed out that an estimated 50% of pregnancies end in miscarriage, often without the woman even realizing she’s pregnant. Potential consequences of abortion restrictions include criminalizing miscarriages and placing women who may already be grieving a lost pregnancy under suspicion.
“A miscarriage, whether natural or chemical, looks the same forensically,” Jordan said. “This is so far-reaching that it will affect every single person in Georgia.”
dr Kelly Coffman, candidate for State House 53, also a reproductive psychiatrist, is frustrated, saddened and angry that Roe v. Wade fell.
“There is absolutely no reason why politicians should come between a patient and her doctor,” Coffman said.
All speakers spoke about the dangers of forcing women to carry unwanted pregnancies to term when existing pregnancy and postpartum care in Georgia is inadequate.
“Georgia has consistently been ranked as one of the worst states for maternal morbidity and mortality. That means women are dying. Pregnancy is incredibly dangerous, both during pregnancy and after birth,” Coffman said. “My patients express their fears about all of this on a daily basis.”
Williams pointed out that the lack of adequate care statewide disproportionately affects poor women and women of color, as well as rural women statewide.
“If more than half of the counties in Georgia don’t even have an OB/GYN to give women the care they need, that’s unacceptable,” Williams said.
“If it were safer for a woman in South Georgia to give birth in Pakistan than in the rural south, we have a real problem,” Jordan said
At a media briefing hosted by Emory University on June 27, Dr. Wes Longhofer on the impact of the Dobbs ruling on businesses in Georgia and beyond, and broader social implications.
Longhofer is a sociologist and executive director of the Institute for Economics and Society at Emory’s Goizueta Business School, and he recently wrote an article in Foreign Affairs entitled “A Post-Roe World? Why America’s Abortion Fights Don’t Stunt Reforms Abroad.
Longhofer initially acknowledged that the situation was very volatile.
“There’s a lot we don’t know,” he said. A number of companies, including Starbucks, Disney, Dick’s Sporting Goods, JP Morgan Chase and others, have pledged not only to offer abortion treatment as part of their health insurance packages, but also to cover travel expenses to enable employees to refrain from state abortions in the case of need. Other companies have opted to relocate employees and may be making decisions about conferences and new facilities based on abortion bans.
Patagonia and Live Nation both agreed to post bail for all arrested employees while protesting the Supreme Court decision.
However, these companies are not in the majority. Most prefer not to make changes and stay out of public debate. Additionally, states that have laws against “facilitating and inducing” abortion can expose companies to legal entanglements.
Longhofer said companies are increasingly expected to engage in social justice issues and listen to public opinion. According to a goBeyondProfit survey, 98% of Georgia employees expect their CEOs to take a stand on social issues.
“The bar has been raised for what companies should be doing, but arguably the stakes have also gotten much higher,” Longhofer said. Employees want more than statements from companies, they also want to see action.
Additionally, Longhofer said, Americans trust corporations, particularly the corporations they work for, more than any other institution, including the media and government. This is partly because of the familiarity, but also because of the polarization of American politics and the growing gap between what most people want and what the government is actually doing.
The majority of the public both in Georgia and across the country opposed the overthrow of Roe v. Wade, but the current state government is keen to further restrict abortion rights and Congress seems unable to protect them.
“Many of our reproductive rights are also economic rights, especially for women. What is unprecedented in this case is that for millions of women, these reproductive and economic rights are now being provided by the private sector,” Longhofer said.
This is an inherently unstable situation.
“The United Nations has a framework on business and human rights that says only states can protect human rights and companies must respect them,” Longhofer said. “If human rights are only guaranteed by the private sector, it means that they are no longer universal or accessible to all.”
Longhofer added, “Most people don’t work for the thirty or so companies that have announced these benefit packages [for abortion access].”
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