This Tuesday, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp signed into law one of most restrictive abortion laws in the nation, which bans the procedure the very moment a fetal heartbeat can be detected — which in many cases can take place before a woman even knows she’s pregnant.
Among those slamming the new law is New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who said that the “men” behind anti-abortion bills have little understanding of how women’s bodies work.
In a series of tweets this Tuesday, AOC pointed out that a fetal heartbeat can be detected as early as 6 weeks when many woman are still unaware that they’re pregnant.
“‘6 weeks pregnant’ = 2 weeks late on your period,” AOC tweeted.
“Most of the men writing these bills don’t know the first thing about a woman’s body outside of the things they want from it,” she continued. “It’s relatively common for a woman to have a late period + not be pregnant.”
“So this is a backdoor ban,” she added.
“6 weeks pregnant” = 2 weeks late on your period.
Most of the men writing these bills don’t know the first thing about a woman’s body outside of the things they want from it. It’s relatively common for a woman to have a late period + not be pregnant.
So this is a backdoor ban. https://t.co/xWd9GAj51b
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) May 8, 2019
AOC expanded her thoughts in a followup tweet.
“For context, this kicks in within days of a typical at-home test working,” she wrote. “If you were sexually assaulted (stress delays cycle), took a morning-after pill (throws off cycle), or have an irregular cycle, you‘d have no idea. There are a TON of ways this law ignores basic biology.”
As Newsweek points out, the new Georgia law was sponsored by both male and female lawmakers, including Republican Representatives Ed Setzler, Jodi Lott, Ginny Ehrhart, Josh Bonner, Darlene Taylor, Micah Gravley, and Republican state Senator Renee Unterman.
The Georgia law makes exceptions in the case of rape or incest, but only if a woman files a police report beforehand. The law also provides exceptions if the mother’s life is at risk or if the fetus is non-viable.
Featured image: screen grab/MSNBC
