A Sunday report from CNN noted Brian Kemp ally, Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts, has announced he will call a special session of his state’s legislature to criminalize abortion and enact a total ban with no exceptions for rape or incest. Ricketts’ announcement comes just days before he’s set to visit Georgia to campaign for Kemp, raising questions on whether the Georgia governor will also call a special legislative session to criminalize abortion and enact a total ban.
Kemp has already bragged about signing “the toughest abortion bill in the country,” which banned abortion before most women even know they are pregnant, and praised a Texas abortion ban that puts bounties on the heads of medical providers. Now, Kemp is showing his extremism by refusing to rule out holding a special legislative session to enact even more dangerous restrictions on women’s reproductive rights if Roe v. Wade is overturned, and lawmakers have reported “hearing rumors” that he may do just that.
Last week during a press conference, Planned Parenthood Southeast Advocates raised questions Kemp and other GOP candidates pushing to criminalize abortion must answer:
- “How would their abortion bans work, and how would they enforce those bans?”
- “What would punishments be for people who got an abortion? What about those who went across state lines to get one? Would people be punished for having a miscarriage?”
- “Do they support a nationwide abortion ban?”
While choosing to remain silent and refusing to answer questions on the future of abortion rights in Georgia, Kemp also hasn’t ruled out his fellow Georgia GOP candidates’ calls for an abortion ban without exceptions — or dangerous pushes from GOP candidates and elected officials across the country to further criminalize family planning and reproductive health care by banning birth control, imposing cruel restrictions to punish women with jail time for seeking abortions, and threatening to arrest doctors who perform them.
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