Among all the hullabaloo over the state of Alabama’s new, strict pro-life law, it is almost easy to forget that the hot-button abortion topic prior to this week was actually Georgia’s slightly less strict pro-life law which would ban all abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected (typically around six weeks). The Daily Wire previously explained the Georgia legislation, which has since been signed into law by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp:
H.B. 481 states that the “full value of a child begins when a heartbeat exists” and requires “physicians performing abortions to determine the existence of a detectable human heartbeat before performing an abortion,” stating, “it shall be the policy of the State of Georgia to recognize unborn children as natural persons,” and asserting “unless otherwise provided by law, any natural person, including an unborn child with a detectable human heartbeat, shall be included in population based determinations.”
There has been a lot of misinformation about Georgia’s new pro-life law, as The Daily Wire has also noted. As David French explained at National Review, “The heartbeat bill did not repeal a number of Georgia criminal statutes that explicitly apply to abortions and unborn children, and it does not overrule controlling legal authority holding that these statutes bar prosecution of a woman for terminating her own pregnancy.” Erick Erickson, who used to practice law in Georgia, confirmed the veracity of French’s analysis.
Nonetheless, many in Hollywood threatened to boycott Georgia, which is sometimes known as the “Hollywood of the South” due to its historically lavish tax credits to lure production studios to film there. The Daily Wire reported on the pro-boycott hysteria:
“This law would make Georgia an inhospitable place for those in the film and television industry to work, including our members,” the [Writers Guild of America] statement read. “If the Georgia Legislature and Governor Kemp make HB 481 law, it is entirely possible that many of those in our industry will either want to leave the state or decide not to bring productions there. Such is the potential cost of a blatant attack on every woman’s right to control her own body.” …
“It should instead be called a ‘forced pregnancy bill’ — because it would outlaw abortion before a woman even knows that she is pregnant,” [Alyssa Milano] said. “It’s the most anti-woman bill of its kind in the country, and it sends the exact wrong message about the kind of state Georgia’s leaders wish to create. In short, HB 481 would make Georgia the most regressive state in the country.”
But according to recent polling, Hollywood may have badly miscalculated. It turns out that recent polling suggests that a majority of Americans support laws that would ban abortion after a fetal heartbeat can be detected. Per TheBlaze:
The results of a Hill/HarrisX survey showed that most voters believe six-week abortion bans, which seek to ban abortions from the point that a fetal heartbeat can be detected, are either too lenient or just right.
Thirty-four percent of voters believe six-week abortion bans are “just right,” and 21 percent believe they are too lenient. Forty-five percent of respondents called the bans “too restrictive.”
Notably, the poll results show that younger voters are more likely than older ones to be supportive of the bans, and women do not significantly differ statistically from men in their opinions on the issue.
Among voters under the age of 34, 30 percent called six-week abortion bans “just right,” and 27 percent said “too lenient.” Those results were 36/18 percent for ages 35-49, 38/21 percent for ages 50-64, and 31/17 percent for ages 65 and over.
That must be a tough pill to swallow for the pro-abortion Left.