If Georgia St. Rep. Bobby Franklin (R) has his way, abortion will become murder and authorities will investigate miscarriages.
House Bill 1 would classify the removal of a live fetus from a woman, except for the purpose of a live birth, as prenatal murder. Any physician charged in an alleged prenatal murder would have their license suspended until they were found not guilty in a court of law.
It would also require miscarriages to be reported by hospitals and other medical institutions in addition to a fetal death certificate being issued.
“The act of prenatal murder is murder and conspiracy to commit murder per se,” according to the bill’s sponsor. “The act of prenatal murder has caused a significant reduction in the number of citizens in this state who would serve as workers, entrepreneurs, teachers, employees, and employers who would have significantly contributed to the prosperity and continuation of this state; and the failure to prosecute a violation of this Code section is a violation of the obligation of this state to provide all of its citizens with an equal protection of the laws.”
The proposed measure is not the first controversial bill Franklin has authored. In the past, he has offered a bill that would change rape victims into “accusers.” He also garnered headlines earlier this month when he told The Marietta Daily Journal that letting gays serve in the military was the equivalent of letting “unrepentant criminals” serve as well.
“The Bible says it’s a capital offense,” he said. “You want someone with unrepentant criminal behavior? And it’s not just that, neither should adulterers, neither should thieves, neither should a lot of things. The church is full of sinners, but we’re told in 1st Corinthians it rattled off the homosexual, the adulterer, the thief, the liar, and such were some of you, but you’ve been washed, you’ve been justified and so forth. It’s not what you were. You’re not punishing a thought. But do you want an unrepentant drug dealer in the military? Same thing.”
There has been at least one other similar bill regarding abortion rights: a South Dakota bill currently under consideration would allow for homicide to be justifiable when committed against an abortion doctor.