Georgia Heartbeat Bill

Overview

Georgia Heartbeat Bill or Living Infants Fairness and Equality Act was a bill passed by Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia banning abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.

Background

On May 7th, 2019, Georgia's governor Brian Kemp of Georgia signed the Living Infants Fairness and Equality Act effectively banning abortion after six weeks of pregnancy which is when when doctors can usually start detecting a fetal heartbeat. The law is due to go in effect in 2020. This bill would allow women with miscarriages to be investigated to prove that they didn't have an illegal abortion.^[1]

Notable Developments

CNN Debate

On May 6th, 2019, CNN's Chris Cuomo questioned Senator Rick Santorum and Christine Quinn. During the debate Christine Quinn said, "When a woman is pregnant, that is not a human being inside of her" (shown below).

The next day, many Twitter users responded negatively to Quinn's statement. Twitter user @ElderLansing^[9] said, "A woman actually went on CNN and said that when a woman is pregnant that is not a human being inside of her it is part of her body!😡 So why does the baby die during an abortion and not the mother? Abortion isn’t suicide it’s First Degree murder!" (shown below, left). The tweet accumulated over 135 retweets and 200 likes in a week. Twitter user @jason_howerton^[8] also responded. He tweeted, "This isn't just scientifically wrong, this is depraved. My God, what have we become." (shown below, right). The tweet gained over 2,800 likes and 900 retweets in a week.

#SexStrike

#SexStrike is a campaign started by actress Alyssa Milano in protest of Georgia's recent passing of restrictive abortion laws. The campaign, inspired by the ancient Greek play Lysistrata, is to abstain from sex until women "get bodily autonomy back." However, the campaign was criticized by women and the LGBTQ+ community who felt it was misguided. Actress Alyssa Milano called for women to abstain from engaging in sex in protest of the law, partially on the grounds such a law will make it too unsafe to risk pregnancy.^[6] Milano's campaign echoes the ancient Greek play Lysistrata by Aristophanes, in which the title character encourages women to stop having sex with their husbands in order to get the warrior husbands to end the Peloponnesian War.^[7]

Women were quick to criticize the idea of using sex as a bargaining chip. Author Kristi Coulter criticized the campaign to this effect, gaining over 600 retweets and 7,500 likes (shown below, left). User @Charalanahzard made a similar argument, gaining over 1,200 likes (shown below, right).

Fake Fetus Image

On May 7th, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez^[2] retweeted CBS News report on the bill saying, "'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" (shown below, left). The tweet accumulated over 197,000 retweets and 590,000 likes in a week. The next day, Liz Wheeler^[4] tweeted picture of a fetus in response to AOC's tweet and said, "This is 'two weeks late on your period.' Two weeks late has arms & legs forming, fingers & toes, & a heartbeat!" (shown below, right). The tweet gained over 13,000 likes in a week.

Twitter users were quick to notice there was a problem with the picture Wheeler posted. On May 8th, @cmclymer^[3] tweeted @Liz_Wheeler I did a reverse image search on your tweet here. It's computer-generated art from SCIEPRO/SPL. I would say what you're doing is dishonest, craven, and dangerous, but you already know that. You just don't care" (shown below, left). The tweet gained over 500 likes in a week. On May 11th, Twitter user @emilynm41^[5] also replied saying, "It does not, however, have a brain. It has not developed a cerebral cortex & therefore is still ~8 weeks from even being able to breathe or swallow. It is at least 6 weeks away from the development of the frontal or temporal lobes of the brain" (shown below, right). The tweet gained over 200 retweets and 3,300 likes in two days.

Ben Shapiro Interview

On May 10th, Ben Shapiro was interviewed on BBC News in which he became angry over Andrew Neil's question about the Georgia bill (shown below). the clip posted to the BBC News YouTube account received over 1.9 million views in three days.

Many Twitter users mocked Shapiro's responses. For example, Twitter user @GStepback posted wrestling clip in which the wrestler gets taken out after entering the fight confidently and compared it to Shapiro. The tweet gained over 600 retweets and 2,800 likes in three days (shown below).

Filming In Georgia

Due to a favorable state tax incentive, Georgia has become a prime location to film movies and TV Show. Netflix and Disney have both responded to the law possibly being implemented in Georgia. On May 28th, 2019, in a statement made to Variety^[11], Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s chief content officer, said:

“We have many women working on productions in Georgia, whose rights, along with millions of others, will be severely restricted by this law. It’s why we will work with the ACLU and others to fight it in court. Given the legislation has not yet been implemented, we’ll continue to film there, while also supporting partners and artists who choose not to. Should it ever come into effect, we’d rethink our entire investment in Georgia.”

On May 29th, @staceyabrams^[10] tweeted, "Georgia stands to lose Netflix & Disney. This means lost jobs for carpenters, hair dressers, food workers & 100s of small businesses grown right here. Billions in economic investment headed to states eager to welcome film + protect women. #Consequences" (shown below). The tweet gained over 7,900 likes and 2,700 retweets in a day.

On May 30th @ReutersIndia tweeted a video of Disney CEO Bob Iger in an interview saying that it would be "‘very difficult’ for the media company to keep filming in Georgia if a new abortion law takes effect because many people will not want to work in the state" (shown below). The video gained over 2,400 likes in a day.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References