One of the most competitive legislative races in Georgia is turning into a referendum on access to reproductive rights.
Democrat Susie Greenberg is challenging Republican state Rep. Deborah Silcox in the suburban Atlanta district that Democrats have made one of their top targets this year. Both women are attorneys who live in Sandy Springs.
Greenberg, who is a former board member of Planned Parenthood Southeast, received a boost for her election bid Saturday when the Harris-Walz presidential campaign held a canvassing kick-off event for her at the campaign’s headquarters three days before the final day of voting.
“We desperately need Susie in our state Legislature,” U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, who is a Democrat, said to a packed room.
Greenberg framed her candidacy as a campaign to “restore women’s rights.” She wore two advocacy buttons, one that said “keep abortion legal” and another for the gun safety group Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America.
“The Georgia Legislature is the front line to protect our freedoms, and our freedoms are under attack,” Greenberg said to supporters Saturday.
Talking to a reporter afterwards, Greenberg said that “abortion is on the ballot” in her race and she said the Republican efforts to curtail access to reproductive rights were part of what motivated her to run for office.
Greenberg blasted Silcox for not doing more to stop Georgia’s abortion law from advancing out of committee in 2019 and for not working to restore the abortion access that was lost after the law took effect in 2022.
“She has not said a word or lifted a finger to restore rights and or to protect doctors who are facing criminalization and prison time for delivering standard medical care,” Greenberg said.
But Silcox pushed back on the claims Saturday.
“Susie Greenberg continues to be dishonest. She continues to be untruthful. She is fully aware that I voted twice against the heartbeat bill,” Silcox said in a statement. “The main issue, the main difference in the campaign is Greenberg’s dishonesty on this and other issues.”
When the bill made it to the state House floor, Silcox voted against it and gave an emotional speech about the constituents, physicians and others who she said voiced concerns to her about the restrictions.
The bill narrowly cleared the House and was signed into law by Gov. Brian Kemp in 2019, and it took effect in the summer of 2022 after the U.S. Supreme Court ended the federal right to an abortion.
Georgia’s law bans most abortions once fetal cardiac activity is detected, which is at about six weeks and before many women know they are pregnant.
Silcox did not immediately respond to a follow-up question about whether she currently thought Georgia’s six-week ban should be repealed.
She is part of a Kemp-backed slate of GOP candidates. The governor has been out campaigning with Republican lawmakers and candidates in hopes of protecting the majorities he needs to advance his legislative priorities.
Kemp and other Republicans have shrugged off the Democrats’ focus on reproductive care – which is also a central plank of Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign – and are betting on Georgians thinking about their pocketbook when entering the voting booth.
But Greenberg says the eroding access to health care is a top concern when she is out knocking on doors. She is backing an effort to repeal the 2019 law.
“When you take away the rights of women and one class of people, it’s a slippery slope till you start taking away rights from other Georgians,” she said. “At the doors, it’s top of mind. Yesterday, women met me at the doors in tears. They are worried. They are in this fight. They are in this fight for themselves, for their friends, their sisters, their daughters and husbands. Men are in this fight too.”
Greenberg cited recently surfaced examples of Georgia women who have either died while trying to have an abortion or for whom treatment was delayed. A new story came out last week about an Atlanta woman who says a hospital delayed care while trying to stay in bounds of what the law allows.
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