Chloe Simon at MMFA:

On May 13, an Atlanta TV news station reported that a Georgia woman who had been declared brain-dead was being kept on life support because she is pregnant, and her family said the hospital attributed the action to a restrictive state abortion law. Medical experts have noted that the case shows how restrictive abortion laws are failing both patients and health care providers. However, anti-abortion groups have attempted to reframe the story around the rights of the fetus and to downplay the role of Georgia’s restrictive abortion laws, an approach they’ve also used with other stories about pregnant patients who have died after struggling to obtain needed care in states with abortion bans.  Adriana Smith, a 30-year-old nurse and mother from Georgia, was declared brain-dead in February after suffering a medical emergency while about nine weeks pregnant. Even though that means she is legally dead, doctors at Emory University Hospital have kept her on life support in an effort to sustain the fetus to at least 32 weeks, telling her family that they are “legally required to keep Smith breathing until the fetus reaches viability,” as the Louisiana Illuminator described.  This decision seemingly has been driven by Georgia's strict abortion laws, which ban terminating a pregnancy once “fetal cardiac activity can be detected, or roughly six weeks into pregnancy.”  The office of Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr has said the abortion law does not require “medical professionals to keep a woman on life support after brain death.” Some have instead claimed the governing factor in Smith’s case is Georgia’s Advance Directive for Health Care Act which restricts “doctors from withdrawing life support from a pregnant patient unless the fetus is nonviable and the patient had a written directive explicitly requesting such action." But hospital staff apparently based their action on the abortion law, citing it in explaining their decision to Smith’s mother, she said. The hospital has declined to publicly comment on the specific case, citing privacy rules. 

[...]

Anti-abortion groups are “looking away or shirking blame” when confronted with such stories

Anti-abortion groups have repeatedly undermined reports of patients who reportedly became victims of their states’ restrictive abortion laws.  After ProPublica published stories of women in Georgia and Texas who died following delayed treatment in states with strict abortion laws, anti-abortion groups attacked the reports as a “complete lie” and claimed the women did not die due to abortion bans, instead pinning their deaths on “medical malpractice” and “neglect.” In fact, two women in Texas died after failing to get proper treatment post-miscarriage under the state’s abortion ban, and a woman in Georgia died after doctors waited 20 hours to perform a dilation and curettage. This may have been due to Georgia’s recent ban on the procedure, as CBS News reported that doctors in states with restrictive abortion laws have voiced concerns over “losing their medical license or being prosecuted if they break the law.”  Substack author Jessica Valenti explained the anti-abortion groups’ strategy toward these kinds of stories as “either looking away or shirking blame.” 

[...]

Some anti-abortion groups have tried to steer blame for Smith from the abortion law to Georgia’s life-support law. 

Live Action claimed that “despite public outcry, removing a pregnant woman from life support actually DOES NOT constitute an ‘abortion’ as defined by the Georgia LIFE Act,” and argued that the onus is on the Georgia life support law which “prevents removing a pregnant woman from life support.”  Secular Pro-Life also said that it is not “not clear Georgia's abortion law is actually the issue here. It's more likely that Georgia's law regarding withdrawing life support for pregnant patients is the issue.”  Other anti-abortion groups have taken the position of arguing for the rights of the unborn fetus.  Students for Life of America complained that “activists and media voices are pressuring her family to pull the plug—ending two lives,” and Secular Pro Life said that “pro-choicers have been too quick to assume babies can’t survive in cases like this—and that Adriana Smith’s family wouldn’t want to try.” 

A right-wing talk show host running in a high-profile special election in Georgia allegedly voted illegally nine times while serving probation for felony convictions, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Monday.

The candidate, Brian K. Pritchard, is running in a Jan. 3 special election to replace former Georgia Speaker of the House David Ralston, who died last month shortly after winning re-election. Pritchard is running against Sheree Ralston, the late legislator’s widow, in a safe Republican seat that David Ralston won uncontested last month.

Pritchard, who is now accused of voting illegally, has also falsely claimed the 2020 presidential election was “stolen” from former President Donald Trump, and accused Republican state officials of being “complicit,” according to the Journal-Constitution.

Congrats to former NFL CB Chris Carr who will graduate from George Washington University Law School on May 21, 2017. Carr’s career as a defensive back and kick returner began when he was drafted by the Raiders in 2005 and ended in 2013 after having played for 5 other teams. In total, Carr had a solid NFL career, playing in 125 regular season games with 7 interceptions, one being a pick-six.

Pictured top: Chris Carr at at George Washington University on May 3, 2017. 📷(Bonnie Jo Mount/Washington Post)

Matt Shuham at HuffPost:

A 3-2 Republican majority on Georgia’s State Election Board voted Friday to require local election offices to hand count the state’s millions of ballots, inviting chaos as experts warned the task would prove impossible in the state’s largest counties, which lean Democratic. The rule was just the latest in a string of partisan votes from the board, members of which Donald Trump praised by name at a rally in Georgia last month. A few weeks ago, the board empowered county election officials — many of whom have challenged election results in the past — to personally investigate election results and demand reams of election-related documentation, potentially delaying the certification of the state’s results. The board was made more partisan as part of a Trumpian election overhaul bill passed in 2021 after Trump lost the state in the 2020 presidential election.

Friday’s rule requires a hand count of all ballots by individual poll managers and two “sworn poll officers.” If there are any inconsistencies, including between the hand counts and ballot tabulators, they must be resolved. The rule will disproportionately affect Georgia’s largest counties, which lean blue and were key to President Joe Biden’s narrow win in the state in 2020. Nearly 5 million people voted in the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. The state’s Republican attorney general’s office advised the board that the change — one of several rules under consideration Friday — was likely unlawful, and it will likely face a challenge in court. The previous rule changes regarding the certification of election results and access to election documentation are currently facing a suit from Georgia Democrats. “These proposed rules are not tethered to any statute — and are, therefore, likely the precise type of impermissible legislation that agencies cannot do,” a senior attorney in Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr’s office wrote.

The new rule increases the likelihood that the certification of election results will be delayed in Georgia. And if the state happens to end up determining the winner of the 2024 election — which isn’t unlikely — such a delay could lay the groundwork for a broader effort to determine the presidency through a legal or political fight, or a 2020-style election subversion campaign. There are already measures in place in Georgia and elsewhere to certify that the correct number of ballots have been tallied in a given precinct — just as there are already avenues for candidates who suspect election fraud to challenge results in court. Critics say giving additional responsibilities to local election officials just six weeks before Election Day is a recipe for disrupting the election and sowing doubts about the results.

Studies (and real-world examples) have consistently found that hand counts of ballots are significantly less accurate than machine counts, but Republicans in several states have campaigned to ban machines or add hand-counting requirements in the wake of Trump and his allies’ lies that the machines were used to rig the 2020 election. The rule passed Friday in Georgia states that “the process must be completed within the designated county certification period,” which occurs a week after Election Day. Speakers in opposition to Friday’s rule warned that it would be used to challenge the legitimacy of election results.

[...] Georgia was one of several states whose 2020 results Republicans challenged in an effort to overturn the election outcome and reverse Biden’s win; Trump faces several felony counts in Georgia and federally for his efforts to overturn those results, as do several Republicans in Georgia.

The Republican majority on the Georgia State Election Board voted 3-2 in favor of causing chaos by requiring time-consuming hand-counting of all ballots that will cause a delay in certification of the results.

Chris Carr (R), the state’s AG, has advised that their changes are likely to be unlawful.

See Also:

Sergeant Chris Carr, Army: near Guignola, Italy

Name: Chris Carr Rank: Sergeant Branch of Service: Army Place of Action: near Guignola, Italy Date of Action: October 1, 1944 – October 2, 1944 World War II