The Impact of Georgia's Abortion Laws: Navigating Reproductive Rights in a Post-Roe Era

By James Allen

In October 2019, a bill was passed in the Georgia legislature that limited abortion rights to within an early gestational time frame. 

The law, Georgia HB 481 or the “Fetal Heartbeat Bill” follows a similar law, HB 490, passed in March 2014.

The new law in Georgia, like the one passed in neighboring Alabama, limits the timeframe to have a legal abortion to the 6th week, a time when many women do not even know they are pregnant and with full knowing that most facilities require you to be at least nine weeks pregnant to have an in-clinic abortion. Today, Medication is prescribed if you are less than nine weeks pregnant.

The implications of this six-week ban on women’s reproductive rights has stirred up an already buzzing debate between proponents and critics of abortion access that has spilled over into the social, political and economic climate locally, regionally, and throughout the nation and world. 

The overturning of the 1973 Roe vs Wade decision, in which the U.S. Supreme Court separated pregnancy into three trimesters totaling 36 weeks, occurred on June 24, 2022, and took away protection under the constitution for pregnancies up until the second trimester, or 24 weeks into the gestational period.

In the middle of the fray, Columbus, Ga., has close ties to the issue.

Jackson Women’s Health, in Mississippi, is the abortion clinic at the center of the new decision. Its owner, Diane Derzis, a former abortion clinic director and pro-choice lobbyist in Alabama, is also the owner of Columbus Women’s Health Organization. 

Her first clinic, the New Woman All Woman clinic, opened in Birmingham, Ala., around the early 90s. 

But in 1998, the clinic suffered a bombing that killed an off-duty security guard and severely wounded a nurse. This incident fanned the flames in the already heated nationwide discussion on pro-life and pro-choice. 

In a June 2024 interview by Alabamareflector.com (https://alabamareflector.com/2024/06/25/from-roe-to-dobbs-and-beyond-the-birmingham-bombing-and-the-aftermath), Derzis reflects on her life-long journey as an abortion provider.

“To this day, I was so surprised there were not patients killed, or their persons that brought them,” she said. 

Still, she did not allow the explosion to stop her from providing services to women.

“Slow movement in the legislature only made small restrictions until the mid-80s, when movements on the pro-life side of the issue began to heighten to the volatility in the air at that time. Just a year before the bombing, in 1997, Alabama Gov. Fob James signed into law a bill that would make aborting a child after 19 weeks punishable by up to 99 years in prison at the time.”

Current Gov. Kay Ivey added her name to a 2019 law that totally banned abortion without exception, and has led to controversy about in vitro fertilization, with many doctors ending the procedure for fear of discarding a frozen embryo or having to abort one of the embryos when too many are fertilized for the safety of the other babies and the mother.

In March of 2024 Ivey signed off on a law that grants immunity to Invitro fertilization service providers and recipients. Still several doctors throughout the state have not moved forward with the procedure for fear of jailtime. 

On the other side of the Chattahoochee River, Georgia has been slightly more progressive with its own abortion laws.  

Chipping away at the two-trimester protection of the original Roe vs Wade decision, in 1974, newly elected Georgia House Speaker Tom Murphy staunchly supported pro-choice until in 2002. 

In fact, traction for the pro-life movement did not improve until after his death in 2007. 

In 2012, then Gov. Roy Barnes signed into law a bill that banned abortions after 20 weeks, making Georgia the 10th state to do so, further limiting services during the second trimester. 

A study in 2015 by the American Public Health Association titled “Implications of Georgia’s 20-week Abortion Ban” concluded: “These bans will likely affect women throughout the South, as well as the Midwest and Northeast.” (https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/abs/10.2105/AJPH.2015.302728?journalCode=ajph).

During then-Sec. of State Brian Kemp’s gubernatorial campaign, he vowed if elected to pass the strictest abortion laws in the nation. 

After winning, in 2019 Kemp helped craft HB 481, excluding all second trimester abortions, and leaving women in Georgia with no options after they are six weeks pregnant.

In Columbus, Georgia, the impact of the 6-week ban has hit home.

Currently, Columbus Women’s Health Organization is only offering the abortion pill: https://columbuswomenshealth.com/abortion/abortion-pill/.

While a clinic in New York, Choices Women’s Medical Center, has a website that offers counseling on choices and options for women from Columbus, Ga., including help with travel expenses, housing and the cost of the abortion.  Visit: https://choicesmedical.com/abortion-clinic-columbus-georgia/ for more information.

A Columbus woman told her story to The New York Times, which included a decision to travel to New York for the procedure. 

The anonymous 24-year-old woman told The Times, she discovered she was pregnant after the six-week period and had no other options than to fly to New York. Read her story here: at https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/06/13/us/abortion-state-laws-ban-travel.html.

Another option women are choosing for abortions, comes from a May 2024 report by the Society of Family Planning, which said many patients are choosing to use Telehealth as an alternative for abortion seekers in states with stricter laws. 

Pro-life advocacy organizations in Columbus include places like the Sound Choices Pregnancy Clinic, located at 1316 Wynnton Court, https://soundchoicespc.org/, describes it as a “pregnancy resource center” helping with the decision to come to full term, planning and support.

Another organization offering similar pro-life support Seneca Choice for Life, located at 3900 Rosemont Dr., next door to the Columbus Women’s Health Organization. 

Its website, https://senecacfl.life, states that it is a “Women’s Center offering Hope, Help and Healing to women before, during, and after pregnancy.”