Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff today released the following statement:
“With its decision in Dobbs, the Court has stripped American women of autonomy over their most personal health care decisions.
“The Court has given license to prosecute and imprison women for making the intensely personal decision to end a pregnancy — even when their health is at risk, even in the first hours or weeks after conception, and even when pregnancy results from rape — and to prosecute doctors and nurses whose private relationships with their patients have been protected by Roe v. Wade for half a century.
“Under Georgia’s HB481, the Court’s decision means Georgia women and medical providers could face prosecution for ending a pregnancy as early as six weeks after conception – before many women even know they are pregnant. This decision also creates risk of investigation and prosecution for women who miscarry and will force some women seeking access to abortion toward unsafe, unqualified alternatives that put their lives at risk.
“The Court’s reasoning imperils other longstanding precedents upon which Americans rely for privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties — including precedents that establish rights to contraception and to interracial and same-sex marriage.
“Here is the inescapable fact: the Justices’ determination to demolish these long-established protections means our only defenses are at the ballot box, in our state legislatures, and in the Congress — where I will continue to fight for the principles of Roe v. Wade and the privacy of women’s health care.”
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