Hi John xxxxxx,
Earlier this year, a Georgia woman named Adriana Smith checked into a hospital with what she thought was an intense headache. At the time, Smith was about eight weeks pregnant.
The next day, she was rushed back to the hospital after she woke up gasping for air. The hospital diagnosed her with blood clots in her brain. Hours later, she was declared brain-dead.
Georgia’s abortion ban contains provisions about “fetal personhood”, a doctrine that entitles embryos and fetuses to full legal rights and protections. Since Smith was 8 weeks pregnant, the law has required doctors to keep her on life support to preserve the pregnancy, even though she no longer has brain function. Doctors will deliver the baby, who experts say will have medical challenges and may not survive, through a caesarean section…
Smith’s family did not get a choice or say about the decision. The decision about Smith’s body was made by the Georgia state government – which consists of an almost entirely male executive branch, and a state legislature that is more than 65% male.
We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: men should not be making laws that infringe on women’s bodily autonomy.
There are far too many new laws across the country that give embryos more rights than women. At Her Bold Move, we are working to elect pro-choice, pro-women women who will fight for our daughters, sisters, mothers, grandmothers, neighbors, and friends. Every woman deserves bodily autonomy – and we know that getting more women elected to government will be our best defense against any law that threatens that right. You can support this effort by pitching in $20.25 TODAY!
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Monica Simpson, Executive Director of SisterSong, the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging Georgia’s abortion law, said Smith’s family, "deserved the right to have decision-making power about her medical decisions. Instead, they have endured over 90 days of retraumatization, expensive medical costs, and the cruelty of being unable to resolve and move toward healing.”
Georgia state Senator Ed Setzler, who sponsored the state’s abortion ban, has taken the opposite view. He told the Associated Press that “it is completely appropriate that the hospital do what they can to save the life of the child.”
Why is a man sponsoring a state’s abortion ban??? Something is deeply wrong with this picture and, at Her Bold Move, we’re on a mission to solve it.
We desperately need more women in office advocating for women constituents and their bodies. We cannot allow this to continue. Rush $20.25 or whatever you can now to help us fight back with the best defense we’ve got: more qualified WOMEN in the rooms where decisions about our bodies are being made. →
Together,
Erica Henry
Senior Political Advisor
Her Bold Move