John Oliver Goes Off on Georgia’s Anti-Abortion ‘Heartbeat Bill’: It Puts Women’s ‘Health and Lives at Risk’
On Sunday night, following a truly bonkers episode of Game of Thrones and wonderful series finale of Veep, John Oliver dedicated the opening portion of his HBO show Last Week Tonight to Georgia’s proposed fetal “heartbeat bill,” which seeks to restrict women’s control over their own bodies.
The bill, which would ban abortion as early as six weeks into a pregnancy—or just a week or two after a woman discovers her period is late, let alone that she is pregnant—was signed Tuesday by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and will surely be challenged in court.
Calling it a “draconian bill,” Oliver explained that the piece of legislation would give a fetus “natural person” status, allowing it to be entitled to child support, claimed as a dependent on tax returns, and included in Georgia’s population. And the only exceptions to the bill—or the only cases where people would be allowed to have abortions—are due to fatal deformity, if the mother’s life is in jeopardy, or cases of rape and incest (corroborated by police report).
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