FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: A.C. Coquillas (they/them) | [email protected]
ATLANTA, GA – Feminist Center for Reproductive Liberation and medical researchers publish cutting-edge research revealing the consequences of HB481, Georgia’s law banning most abortion after about six weeks. The research shows how, even when abortion bans like Georgia’s include exceptions, people carrying high-risk pregnancies face delays and denials of care. The research team has launched the website AbortionAtRisk.org and published the research in Contraception to bring findings and resources to the public.
A research participant whose water broke in her second trimester shared her experience of being denied care until she developed serious complications, stating, “you take all of that grief and despair and pain. And now you add fear. Why? For what? I would have sat in that hospital room for months, whatever it took, if it meant he [my baby] could have lived. But he couldn’t. And so what were we saving? What were we protecting, what were we achieving other than pain and suffering and sorrow? And that’s what this law created for me.”
“This research validates what providers like Feminist Center already knew anecdotally: unjust reproductive restrictions like Georgia’s 6-week ban do deep harm to our communities,” said Kwajelyn Jackson, Executive Director of Feminist Center for Reproductive Liberation. “It is imperative that policymakers and providers take this under serious consideration. Individuals with high-risk pregnancies unnecessarily experience many barriers, and the law’s vague list of exceptions do not provide the relief Georgians deserve. More research and policy change is desperately needed.”
“Legislators often assert that abortion ban exceptions allow people with high-risk pregnancies to access care,” said Dr. Nisha Verma, a board-certified OB-GYN and principal investigator for this study. “However, our research is a powerful reminder of how Georgia’s law fails to capture the complexity of what high-risk pregnancy means to different people, based on their individual life circumstances, and leaves many people behind. At the end of the day, who gets to decide what level of risk is too much for someone to take on during their pregnancy – the pregnant person and their family, or the government?”
Feminist Center for Reproductive Liberation provides reproductive health care including abortion, and engages in movement building with people across all axes of oppression so that we have the rights, resources, and respect to make empowered, informed decisions about our own bodies and health. We envision compassionate, judgment-free healthcare, abortion access, and bodily autonomy for all who need it, intentionally centering Black people, Indigenous people, people of color, and the TGNC community. We imagine clinics, legislation, and communities where decisions about our bodies, pregnancy, sexuality, family, and safety are honored, protected, and treated with dignity.
Feminist Center for Reproductive Liberation and the research team are accepting media inquiries at this time.
