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A crowd of hundreds gathers outside City Hall in downtown Athens, Georgia, for a rally to defend abortion rights on Wednesday, May 4, 2022. The emergency rally was called in response to a leaked U.S. Supreme Court opinion draft threatening to overturn Roe v. Wade. (Photo/Jessica Gratigny; @jgratphoto)

On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned its decision on Roe v. Wade, the 49-year-old landmark case that granted American citizens the Constitutional right to abortion. The moment the opinion was released, it sent shockwaves that rolled from Washington D.C. across the entire United States.

This ruling reverses the courts’ 1973 decision, which affirmed that American citizens have a right to abortion up until the point of fetal viability under the 14th amendment, which forbids states from denying citizens the right to “life, liberty or property, without due process of law.”

This decision is largely unsurprising to many — it comes after the draft opinion was leaked last month. Plans to attempt to overturn Roe v. Wade were detailed in this leaked draft opinion, according to POLITICO.

While the long-term impacts of this decision are yet to be seen, it is certain that the consequences of this decision will be seen and experienced here in Athens. The 2019 “fetal heartbeat” law of the Georgia General Assembly is likely to go into effect in the absence of Roe v. Wade.

Will abortions be accessible in Athens?

Presently, pregnant Georgians are able to access abortion care up to approximately 22 weeks after their most recent menstrual cycle.

In 2019, the Georgia General Assembly passed a law stating that abortion would be illegal after a heartbeat can be detected in a fetus. Fetal heartbeats can be detected as early as six weeks after the implantation of an embryo, a period of time often too short for many to realize that they may be pregnant.

This law was blocked by an injunction from a federal district judge due to it contradicting the rights outlined in the Roe v. Wade decision, but it is likely to go into effect in the aftermath of the decision being overturned.

The Georgia General Assembly will not meet until early 2023, at which point the now Republican-majority House and Senate could pass even more restrictive legislation on abortion access. The outcome of this year’s gubernatorial race between Democrat Stacey Abrams and incumbent Republican Brian Kemp will also factor into future abortion legislation in Georgia.

The University of Georgia University Health Center’s website has a page on unplanned pregnancy, but lists no resources on abortion as of press time. There are no abortion providers in Athens. Some of the closest abortion facilities serving pregnant people from Athens include Planned Parenthood’s Gwinnett Center in Lawrenceville and the Atlanta Women’s Medical Center in Atlanta.

What does this decision mean in general?

The Supreme Court was able to overturn Roe v. Wade through their ruling on a present-day case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. This case centered around a 2018 law stemming from the Mississippi legislature that banned abortions after 15 weeks of gestation.

After the only abortion care provider in Mississippi challenged the state, the case was escalated to the Supreme Court, where the ruling was found not only in favor of the state legislature, but in direct opposition with the precedent of Roe v. Wade.

Abortion no longer being constitutionally protected means that the United States’ Congress no longer has control over abortion laws or restrictions. Decisions on when, how and if abortion care will be legally provided to pregnant people will be left entirely up to state legislatures.

Will abortions be accessible near Georgia?

Abortion laws in South Carolina, Alabama and Tennessee that were previously ruled unconstitutional are likely to go into effect in the near future according to the Guttmacher Institute, an abortion rights research and advocacy organization.

Nine states, including the three previously mentioned, had laws that contradicted Roe v. Wade already in place. 13 additional states have “trigger laws” in place — laws set to restrict access to legal abortions immediately in the absence of Roe v. Wade — including Tennessee, Kentucky and Mississippi. The Guttmacher Institute classifies Florida as likely to ban abortion in the near future.

If abortions become fully illegal in Georgia, it is likely that traveling to another state with more lenient abortion policies will still be an option. However, this option will often only be available to those individuals who have access to the money, job flexibility, child-care and other resources necessary to travel out of the state for a medical procedure.

What can Athenians who do not support this decision do?

Athens locals who do not support the Supreme Court decision or want to support people seeking abortions in the wake of the ruling have a few options.

Sahauna Ramesh, cofounder and educational committee chair of the Athens Reproductive Justice Collective, was busy on Friday organizing a protest and planning for supporting the local community in a post-Roe v. Wade context.

“[The future of abortion care in Athens] is not really looking great. That’s just the way that it is right now,” Ramesh said. “The only real way to see change in the immediate future would be making sure that people get out their own vote and help others vote as well.”

The ARJC works to educate and support Athenians seeking reproductive healthcare and abortion access. This includes hosting educational events, working with individuals to fund travels and abortion procedures and working alongside local and state legislators to implement policies.

The ARJC and ARC-Southeast, a non-profit organization providing financial and logistical support to Southerners seeking abortions that the ARJC works with often, are always accepting donations from anyone looking to support their efforts.

A protest against the Supreme Courts’ decision organized by the ARJC, Party for Socialism & Liberation, UGA Students for Socialism and the Athens Area Democratic Socialists of America will take place in Athens College Square on Saturday, June 25 at noon.