Most Georgia voters support access to safe, legal abortions. The GOP isn’t listening.
Today, Republican Party operatives from around the country are gathered in Milwaukee for the 2024 Republican National Convention to nominate their presidential candidate. Last week, on the surface, Republicans seemed to soften their stance on abortion when they released a new version of their platform that removed a total abortion ban from among its goals for the first time in 40 years.
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
In reality, Republican leaders made this change to their platform because they know that a national abortion ban is unpopular with voters. But the party platform still asserts that the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution — granting equal rights to all citizens — should apply to embryos and fetuses. This misapplication of the 14th Amendment, which in 1868 enshrined into the Constitution civil rights for formerly enslaved people, could lead to the criminalization of abortion and in vitro fertilization treatment.
Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, 21 states have either wholly banned abortions or severely restricted abortion access. But abortion access is critical as a part of the suite of comprehensive reproductive health care that allows people to make decisions about their health and their futures. Beyond abortion, these laws also criminalize birth control, IVF, miscarriage care and other elements of family planning and reproductive health care. Unfortunately, Georgia was the first state to pass a so-called fetal “personhood” law, although it was opposed by a majority of Georgians even when it was implemented.
The Republican Party is wrong about what Georgians want on abortion rights.
Laws that criminalize abortion are wildly out of step with the views of most Americans, including here in Georgia. Despite stereotypes about our state based on policies we didn’t ask for, recent polling shows that the overwhelming majority of Georgians support safe abortion access regardless of their personal beliefs. Irrespective of how they personally feel about abortion, 4 in 5 Georgia voters believe that the government should not stand in the way of someone’s decision to have an abortion. In fact, fully 71% of Georgians support access to safe, legal abortions. And these views are held to varying degrees by Georgians who vote Republican, Democratic or independent.
That’s according to a new survey of more than 800 registered voters in metro Savannah, Macon and Athens — cities that have been largely left out of most polling data on abortion issues until now — and another poll of 1,000 voters statewide. Georgians support access to safe, legal abortion care and trust pregnant people to make abortion decisions for themselves. These voters oppose Georgia’s abortion bans and restrictions, and they are concerned about the criminalization of both patients and health care providers.
Georgians deserve care and compassion in pregnancy — not punishment, shame or the threat of jail time. Yet despite the views of Georgians and Americans more broadly on abortion rights, Republican lawmakers have continued to pursue the criminalization of abortion through extremist fetal “personhood” laws. Georgia’s law sought to ‘redefine when human life begins,” which threatens to upend every single criminal and civil law in the state and has led to the criminalization of abortion.
Granting civil rights to an embryo or fetus impinges on the liberty, freedom and health of anyone in our state who could become pregnant. It’s also a legal hornet’s nest. It’s still unclear how many different ways the state could hold someone legally responsible for manslaughter or homicide if they lose a pregnancy.
Ultimately, nearly 70% of Georgia voters are concerned that pregnant people could be prosecuted under current Georgia law, as are 88% of women of color. Black women are already far more likely than others to face criminal charges for miscarrying, and laws like this are likely to increase that.
Meanwhile, in a cruel irony, anti-abortion extremists are co-opting the language of the abolition and civil rights movements to apply it to fetal “personhood,” further criminalizing people of color who are already over-policed and incarcerated.
Using the rhetoric of civil rights to strip Georgians of their rights is a dirty trick. And it’s one that we shouldn’t stand for.
Republican Party extremists are making a severe miscalculation by disregarding the views of Georgia voters, who overwhelmingly believe that abortion is a personal decision that the government should not interfere in.
Georgians will keep mobilizing to protect their liberty. If Republican politicians continue to push fetal “personhood” laws and other restrictions, they’ll be left behind by Georgia voters.
Roula AbiSamra is the state campaign director of the Amplify Georgia Collaborative. The Rev. Leo Seyij Allen is Georgia manager of Faith In Public Life.
