On this special edition of Political Rewind, we are talking about House Bill 481, known to many people as the “Heartbeat” Bill. A lot has been said about the bill during the 2019 Legislative Session leading up to the signing of the bill by Gov. Brian Kemp on May 7th.

Since then, the new law has been widely discussed. Along with other states abortion laws, the topic has remained in the news cycle this week. Questions and confusion have led to debate and uncertainty about how the new law interacts with other Georgia laws. Questions like, can women be criminalized for their own abortions and how will miscarriages be investigated?

Today we take a moment to take a close look at the language of H.B. 481, existing Georgia law and ask our experts to provide insight into how they think the legislation will interact if it goes into effect as written.

Current Version of House Bill 481

Access the Official Code of Georgia Annoted

1998 Case Hillman v. State

2014 Case Pineda v. State

Panelists:

Amy Steigerwalt -- Political Science Professor, Georgia State University

Donna Lowry -- Capitol Correspondent, GPB Lawmakers