A Georgia lawmaker today introduced a bill that would protect human life from the moment of conception and outlaw the killing of preborn children.
HB 1, sponsored by Rep. Bobby Franklin and co-sponsored by Rep. Melvin Everson, directly challenges Roe v. Wade -- the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion.
The legislation reads, in part: "Justice Blackmun, writing for the majority in Roe v. Wade … wrote: ‘when those trained in the respective disciplines of medicine, philosophy, and the theology are unable to arrive at any consensus, the judiciary, at this point in the development of man’s knowledge, is not in a position to speculate as to the answer (to the question of when life begins).’
"Now, 30 years later, the General Assembly knows the answer to that difficult question, and that answer is life begins at the moment of conception."
Members of a state House committee heard testimony from Franklin and Everson as well as Dr. Alveda King and Sandra Cano. Cano was "Doe" in the Supreme Court case Doe v. Bolton – the follow-up to Roe v. Wade that made way for unfettered access to abortion services. King is the niece of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The legalization of abortion on demand has resulted in a dramatic rise in the incidence of child abuse, committee members heard, as well as a dramatic weakening of the union of family.
Abortion has pitted "mothers against their children and women against men," the bill contends.
