Dem
51
GOP
49
Here is our third story today on abortion. There will be more in the coming months. Count on it. Georgia has a tough abortion law, outlawing the procedure after about the 6th week of pregnancy. Some women who need an abortion can travel out of state to get one. Currently, abortion is legal in Florida until the 15th week of pregnancy, although a law to reduce it to 6 weeks is now being disputed in the courts.
But there is a class of women who can't freely travel out of state for an abortion: those under court supervision (that is, those on probation or out on parole). Nationally, there are 666,400 such women. Georgia has 3.2% of the U.S. population, so about 22,000 women in Georgia are on probation or parole. If any of them get pregnant and don't want the baby, their choices may be limited to having a baby they don't want and possibly can't afford, or travel out of state and risk being sent to prison for violating the probation or parole rules. Some people under supervision must wear ankle bracelets so their probation or parole officer can track them at all times. A pregnant woman could ask her officer for permission to travel out of state for an abortion, but the officer is completely free to grant or deny the request. Lying about the reason risks prison if the officer learns the truth.
The possibility of being sent to prison for violating probation is not merely theoretical. In 2015, 55% of all prison admissions in Georgia were for probation violations. In 2019, 1,100 people were sent back to prison for parole violations. A report from Harvard on probation noted that "the largest alternative to incarceration in the United States is simultaneously one of the most significant drivers of mass incarceration." (V)