Georgia’s elected prosecutors and a state lawmaker said they are standing by their commitments against the criminalization of reproductive health decisions after a federal appeals court enacted the state’s six-week abortion ban.
Democratic lawmakers and officials have spoken out against efforts that threaten abortion rights after the US Supreme Court ruled Roe v. Wade lifted. Seven Georgia state attorneys signed a statewide joint statement last month refusing to use their offices’ resources to criminalize abortion.
“Anyone who was proactive in making these commitments was already aware” that state Republicans were pushing for Georgia’s abortion law to go into effect, Georgia State Representative Renitta Shannon (D) said in an interview on 22nd of July. “I don’t expect anyone to take credit for their involvement.”
Her comments came after the US Circuit Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit last week overturned a lower court injunction on the state’s controversial abortion law, which bans the procedure after a fetal heartbeat was detected. Shannon recently testified before Congress about the varied negative effects that state abortion bans will have on low-income communities and women of color.
Georgia district attorneys say they are maintaining their previously stated positions defending abortion rights.
“Until our community is rid of violent crimes and sex offenders, I will not dedicate our limited resources to prosecuting women and their doctors for personal health decisions,” said Jared Williams, district attorney for the Augusta Judicial Circuit, in a June 24 statement afterward the Supreme Court decision.
Patsy Austin-Gatson, district attorney for the Gwinnett Judicial Circuit, said July 22 that she stands by her position but will review incidents on a case-by-case basis if they come through her office.
“There’s so much more at stake when a real woman who’s had her for fifty years is summarily removed,” Austin-Gatson said in an emailed statement. “There are myriad nuances regarding this issue that the law has failed to address.”
Sherry Boston, the DeKalb County District Attorney, told Bloomberg Law she will continue to use her prosecutorial discretion to protect her community.
“Since the early days of the criminal justice system, prosecutors have always had the ability to make decisions about which cases to prosecute and which cases not to prosecute,” she said.
“As DeKalb’s Attorney with limited resources, we have chosen to focus our energies on serious violent crimes – such as murder, rape, aggravated child abuse and the backlog of criminal cases that have arisen as a result of the unprecedented closure to Covid – and we will continue to put our resources there, rather than taking away from it, to potentially screen women and doctors for medical decisions,” Boston said.
With the Georgian legislature not reconvening until January 2023, legislative battles over the ban will have to be suspended. Still, Shannon urged those who care about the issue to “turn up for the vote in November.”
“There are positions up for grabs that could have an impact on this law — whether it’s something that can just stay in place or not, or whether it’s something that people will aggressively work to get repealed in Georgia,” said she called.
