Georgia House Leader Kills Pro-Life Bill to Stop Race-Based, Sex-Based Abortions
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
May 3, 2010
Atlanta, GA (LifeNews.com) — The statewide pro-life group Georgia Right to Life is disappointed in Georgia legislative leaders who, it says, ultimately destroyed a measure that would ban race-based and sex-based abortions.
The Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act, which also helps stop abortions in cases when women are forced or coerced into having one, had been approved in the Senate.
A state House committee had moved it forward but it then encountered problems when Speaker David Ralston drafted his own version of SB 529 so late in the legislative session.
Ralston asked that his version of the bill be approved with no committee hearings because, as GRTL says, he knew the organization and other pro-life groups would oppose his version of the bill.
"Speaker David Ralston stopped SB 529 dead in its tracks," GRTL legislative director Mike Griffin tells LifeNews.com. "Speaker Ralston single-handedly stopped the due process in vetting a bill in order to demand that things be done his way."
"When GRTL refused to play political games and give in to his demands to gut SB 529, he killed the bill by refusing to allow the original version or a compromised version that protected the original intent out of committee," Griffin said. "All Georgians should be outraged at the power grab and hypocrisy of such actions especially when the Speaker professes and has proven to be pro-life in the past."
Griffin said the problem was exacerbated when one pro-life legislator told him he saw pro-abortion lobbyists working on a compromise agreement for the bill just minutes before Ralston suggested it to House members.
"It became known to many members that Ralston’s attorney Bill Reilly was taking consultation from special interests groups like Planned Parenthood," Griffin told LifeNews.com.
While Georgia Right to Life condemned the legislation’s demise, Planned Parenthood of Georgia sent its membership a victory email thanking them for killing the bill.
"Our thanks go out to SisterSong, Feminist Women’s Health Center, SPARK Reproductive Justice NOW and other women’s advocacy groups who worked tirelessly throughout the session to defeat this … race and sex abortion ban," the abortion business said.
The bill received national attention as the spotlight shone on the disproportionate number of abortions done on black women compared to their percentage of the population.
Although black civil rights advocates like Alveda King, the niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., endorsed the bill, the Georgia NAACP received negative attention when it withdrew its endorsement.
Catherine Davis, director of minority outreach at Georgia Right to Life, told LifeNews.com previously that the bill is needed because abortions target black women.
"According to the CDC, of the 38 states that report, Georgia is currently leading the nation in abortions in the black community. African-Americans make up 30% of the population and 59% of the abortions," she said.
"In 2008, according to the Georgia Division of Health, 18,901 abortions were performed on black women. SB 529 seeks to protect these women and their children, from making decisions they did not want to make," Davis added.
Statistics from the federal government and the mainstream media appear to back up the point that abortions target black women.
Earlier, Georgia Right to Life worked with the Radiance Foundation to promote billboards across Atlanta with the message "Black Children Are An Endangered Species" featuring a picture of a black baby.
ACTION: Respond to the Georgia NAACP’s decision to withdraw its support by going to https://www.ganaacp.org/contact.htm
Related web sites:
Georgia Right to Life – https://www.grtl.org
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