Like Burt Jones, Rick Jackson Says He Would Ban Abortion With No Exceptions for Rape

Like Burt Jones, Rick Jackson Says He Would Ban Abortion With No Exceptions for Rape 

New reporting from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reveals Rick Jackson would push Georgia’s extreme abortion ban even further, and would pursue an abortion ban without exceptions for rape.

He was also caught saying rape victims need to “prove it” before accessing abortion, Georgia should “tighten up” access to abortion pills, which are used in a vast majority of abortions statewide, and that he would be open to criminalizing doctors who provide reproductive healthcare.

Jackson has already promised to enforce even stricter limits on abortion if elected governor, despite the state’s current ban being so extreme that it resulted in the deaths of at least two women.

In the GOP runoff on Tuesday, Jackson will face Burt Jones, who supports a total abortion ban without exceptions for rape or the life of the mother – proof that no matter who wins next week, Georgians will be left with a GOP nominee with an extreme and dangerous record on reproductive rights.

Read more below:

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Abortion Law” 

• Jackson supports Georgia’s anti-abortion law, which bans the procedure as early as six weeks and includes exceptions for rape and incest.
• But at a recent campaign stop in east Georgia, he appeared open to new limits pressed by a voter who worried doctors could “fudge” records to claim a pregnancy was earlier than it was.
• “What do you think you could do as governor to go after doctors who just do something like that?” asked the voter at a Walton County barbecue in audio obtained by the AJC.
• “Well, you basically make it against the law, No. 1,” Jackson said. “No. 2, they have to have evidence to prove in order to not have liability themselves. They need to be able to prove it.”
• He added: “If you implement that, doctors are not going to risk their license.”
• The voter responded: “I think you know that you could make an example of one or two doctors.”

• Jackson: “Absolutely.”

• The same voter also pressed him on the law’s rape exception, which she said she opposes, saying “two wrongs don’t make a right.”

• Jackson responded: “You’ve still got life.”

• The voter continued: “It seems to me that, if a woman is saying she was raped, she needs to prove it. You know?”

HuffPost: Leaked Audio Shows GOP Candidate Agreeing That Women Should ‘Prove’ Rape To Access Abortion

• Rick Jackson, a Republican gubernatorial candidate in Georgia, appears to believe women should have to prove they were raped before being eligible for an abortion exception under the state’s six-week ban, according to leaked audio reviewed by HuffPost.
• While speaking with a community member at an annual barbecue event in April, Jackson discussed his views on abortion, including the state’s current six-week abortion ban. The law only allows exceptions for victims of rape and incest, when the fetus is not able to survive outside of the womb, and when the life or health of a pregnant person is at risk.
• Jackson, a billionaire Republican political donor, agreed with the community member who said “two wrongs don’t make a right” regarding rape victims accessing abortion care.
• When the community member said she wanted to see “babies born no matter how they were conceived,” referring to rape, Jackson replied: “You still got life, it’s still a life.” He then agreed with her when she said a woman who says she was raped “needs to prove it” to be eligible for an exception under the state’s already-extreme abortion ban. The support to “prove” rape is a sentiment widely shared in anti-abortion circles, which believe unfounded claims that women use rape exceptions as loopholes to access abortion care.

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