South Gwinnett News

At least seven district attorneys from across Georgia insist they have no plans of prosecuting women for abortion-related cases after the U.S. Supreme Court recently moved to overturn the decision extending constitutional protections for abortion.

"Anti-abortion laws endanger the lives and health of marginalized individuals whose access to safe abortion procedures will be restricted the most," Dekalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston told FOX 5 Atlanta this week. "Our focus should be on violent offenders and crimes that truly impact public safety and quality of life for the communities we serve."

Presently, abortion remains legal in Georgia, but the Supreme Court's ruling is expected to directly impact the legal issues surrounding the state's so-called "heartbeat bill" that was signed into law by Gov. Brian Kemp in 2019, the FOX 5 report said. 

In all, 84 prosecutors across the county released a statement through the Fair and Just Prosecution organization asserting that they would "decline to use our offices’ resources to criminalize reproductive health decisions and commit to exercise our well-settled discretion and refrain from prosecuting those who seek, provide, or support abortions."

In addition to Boston, other Georgia district attorneys who were party to the statement included Fulton County's Fani Willis, Gwinnett County's Patsy Austin-Gatson, Chatham County's Shalena Cook Jones, Macon Judicial Circuit's David Cooke, Deborah Gonzalez of the Western Judicial Circuit (Athens), Augusta's Jason Williams and Douglas County's Dalia Racine; the report said.