Latest news with #NabilahIslamParkes
Yahoo
a day ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Critics of Georgia's abortion ban push for clarity after another case makes international news
Sen. Nabilah Islam Parkes speaks at against Georgia's abortion law at the state Capitol. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder Georgia Democrats are calling for clarity in the state's abortion law as the case of Adriana Smith continues to grab headlines worldwide. Undiagnosed blood clots in Smith's brain left the 30-year-old nurse brain dead months ago, but doctors have kept her organs functioning through medical devices. Family members told media outlets Smith's body was being kept alive despite no chance for her to recover because she is pregnant and removing her from life support could violate the state's ban on most abortions after six weeks. Georgia's top lawyer disagrees with that interpretation of the law. 'There is nothing in the LIFE Act that requires medical professionals to keep a woman on life support after brain death,' Attorney General Chris Carr said in a statement. 'Removing life support is not an action 'with the purpose to terminate a pregnancy.'' But a public statement does not come with the force of law, said Sen. Nabilah Islam Parkes, a Duluth Democrat, and when it comes to the practice of medicine, legal gray areas can lead to tragic outcomes. Speaking at a press conference Thursday at the state Capitol, Islam Parkes called on Carr to issue a legally binding opinion to answer a series of questions she said would spell out when doctors could treat a pregnant woman in a way that could harm or kill the fetus: Is a hospital legally required to maintain a brain dead pregnant woman on life support? What precisely constitutes a medical emergency under the law? Under what conditions does a pregnancy meet the threshold of incompatibility with life? How does the law affect legal standing of advanced directives and end-of-life planning for pregnant Georgians? 'These questions are not theoretical,' Islam Parkes said. 'They're urgent, because as long as this law remains vague, we will continue to see families traumatized, providers criminalized and patients left behind. Doctors are being forced to make impossible choices, families are trapped in grief and fear and women are dying.' Islam Parkes was referencing two high-profile deaths, Georgians Amber Thurman and Candi Miller, who both died in 2022 after suffering complications from taking abortion pills. Thurman died in a hospital after doctors waited nearly a day to perform a routine procedure to remove fetal tissue from her uterus; Miller died after family members said she was afraid to seek medical care because of the recently enacted law. Democrats said there are likely more cases that do not end in death. of Gwinnett said she had already picked out a name for her unborn daughter, Sawyer Nicole Christian, but in March, a day after Maruscak held a gender reveal party, she discovered her daughter's heart had stopped beating. 'In a matter of seconds, we went from preparing to welcome her into our lives to trying to figure out how to say goodbye,' she said at the Capitol press conference. 'My doctor was sympathetic, but because of the restrictive abortion laws, my care was limited to a list of abortion clinics. No follow-up plan, no guidance and no support. Over the next two days, I called clinic after clinic, continuously having to repeat and relive that Sawyer did not have a heartbeat. My insurance recommended me to go to the emergency department because of increasing septic symptoms, so I did. I spent seven hours there in pain, in grief, and in shock, only to be discharged with no treatment, no resolution and no care.' Maruscak said she spent more than a week carrying her daughter's remains. 'What happened to me is not rare. It is not an outlier. It's happening every day,' she said. 'One in four women experience a miscarriage. Over half of them need medical intervention to complete it safely. This is not just a political issue, it's a medical one.' Senate Minority Leader Harold Jones made no bones about the party's ultimate goal of repealing the six-week abortion ban, which went into effect in 2022 after the United States Supreme Court overturned the federal right to abortion and left the matter to states. 'As that fight continues, we must stand with and demand clarification from our governor and attorney general,' Jones said. 'What rights do women have under this law? Georgians have been asking this question. We as legislators have been asking this question and the people standing here today have been asking this question, yet Georgia's leadership has stayed silent.' The author of Georgia's abortion bill, Acworth Republican Sen. Ed Setzler, accused Democrats of playing politics in an attempt to drum up headlines. 'My heart goes out to Adriana, her family, and the young son inside of her who is struggling for his life,' Setzler said. 'Nabilah Islam Parkes and the Democrats are sickening at the depths they will go to drag Adriana's hurting family, who is trying to save the life of their grandson, through a sick political debate about expanding abortion.' 'The Democrats are making attacks as loudly as they can to try to seize media attention,' he added. Conservative radio host and Georgia Life Alliance board member Martha Zoller said tragic cases like Maruscak's are not the result of the state's abortion ban – sometimes referred to by supporters as the 'heartbeat bill' – but of hospitals misunderstanding or misapplying it. 'Once you've had a miscarriage or you're in the process of a miscarriage, there is no heartbeat, so there should be no reason for care to be withheld or anything like that,' she said. 'That's the over-legalization of the medical care business with not allowing providers to be providers and to do what's best for patients. And that has nothing to do with the heartbeat bill. That has to do with the structure at the hospital. The care for a miscarriage is not denoted as something that's a method of abortion in the heartbeat bill, and once you've had a miscarriage, there is no heartbeat, so the heartbeat bill doesn't come into play.' 'It's a travesty that the Democratic caucus continues to mislead women and scare them for their own political purposes,' she added. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
State senator announces bid for head of Democratic Party of Georgia
At the end of March, U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams announced her resignation from her position as head of the Democratic Party of Georgia. Now, with the state chapter of the Democratic Party announcing their election schedule for a new party head, a state senator from Gwinnett County is throwing her name in the running. Sen. Nabilah Islam Parkes announced her candidacy for chair of the DPG on Friday morning. 'This election cycle is absolutely critical for Georgians – and we need to do everything we can to elect Democrats who will fight for working families and the middle class up and down the ballot, including re-electing Jon Ossoff to the Senate. We won in 2020 and 2022 by energizing our base while also appealing to new voters, and we can do it again,' Islam Parkes said in a statement. [DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] TRENDING STORIES: MLK assassination 57 years later: How the King family will remember the civil rights icon today Sine Die: 3 things to know about the end of Georgia legislative session 8 Georgia candidates are seeking 2 seats on a commission that regulates utilities She closed off her announcement by saying she's 'not afraid of a tough fight,' when it comes to close elections, referring to the current political state of affairs in Georgia and Washington. Ahead of the party election in May, the DPG will hold several in-person, regional candidate forums. Dates for the forums have yet to be announced but a schedule is expected sometime next week. DPG elections are expected to be held on May 3 in Atlanta. A unity fundraiser will be held in mid-May, according to a statement from Democratic Party of Georgia Interim Chair Matthew Wilson. 'Georgia Democrats are laser-focused on holding Republicans accountable at the ballot box this year and next for all the harm they've caused hardworking Georgia families,' Wilson said. 'We're wasting no time filling these vacancies because the stakes couldn't be higher, and every Georgian sick and tired of being sick and tired will be working together to defeat Republicans in 2026.' [SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
Associated Press
28-03-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Fight over voucher spending is key to setting Georgia budget
ATLANTA (AP) — For Georgia lawmakers to agree on a state budget, they must first agree on how much they are going to spend on a new voucher program for private schools and home schooling. Georgia's voucher program is different from some states, with lawmakers agreeing when they created the program last year that lawmakers would decide each year how to spend. The state Senate, which passed its version of next year's budget on Friday, wants to spend $141 million on the program. House members proposed spending only $46 million. It is a key disagreement lawmakers must resolve before Georgia's annual legislative session ends next week At $6,500 per voucher, the Senate amount would provide enough for more than 21,000 vouchers, while the House amount would provide for only about 7,000 slots. The overall budget would spend $37.7 billion in state revenue in the year beginning July 1. Once federal and other money is combined, it would be more than $67 billion. Voucher programs are ballooning nationwide. Many supporters want all students to be eligible, regardless of school performance or family income. States that have adopted universal vouchers, such as Arizona, Florida, Iowa and Ohio, reported more applications than expected, causing costs to bulge. Georgia Democrats fear that happening here, although lawmakers would have to change state law to spend more than 1% of what the state spends on public schools. 'Let's call this what it is, a transfer of public money into private hands,' said Democratic Sen. Nabilah Islam Parkes of Duluth. Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Blake Tillery, a Vidalia Republican, defended the program and spending, arguing that low reading achievement levels point to the need for change. 'The reason we support a voucher program is because kids have to be given an ability to do something better,' Tillery said. 'Their parents have to be given options to take their kids somewhere else. Why? Because we have failed them.' House members, though, have complained that the Georgia Education Savings Authority, the group created to administer the program, interpreted the law in such a way that it made many more students eligible than many lawmakers had expected. The program is midway through its first application period, which runs until April 15. As of Thursday, 4,439 applications had been approved. There are two more application periods set for the summer and fall, but it is unclear how many total applications would be approved. Tillery said Thursday that if the scholarship program doesn't need the entire $141 million, lawmakers can take the money back later. The Senate budget also rejected a House proposal to borrow more than $300 million next year for construction projects. Instead, the Senate plan would spend on construction only from existing state revenue for the third year in a row. 'We're funding that with cash, saving generations 10 and 20 years from now from paying for buildings we're building now,' Tillery said. Gov. Brian Kemp sets the maximum amount that lawmakers can spend, so they can only move money around to different spending items. That means lawmakers must decrease spending on one item to increase spending on another item. So with the Senate rejecting borrowing and increasing spending on vouchers, it pinched spending the House proposed on other items, including supplemental funding to educate students in poverty.
Yahoo
15-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
ICE raids spark fear across Georgia
The Brief Georgia lawmakers held a community hearing at the State Capitol on Friday to discuss mass deportations. Democratic State Sen. Nabilah Islam Parkes hosted the meeting. Members of the local immigrant community say that ICE raids are sowing fear in their neighborhoods. ATLANTA - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) launched sweeping immigration raids across the country just days after President Donald Trump took office in January. The sweeps fueled fear and uncertainty in cities across Georgia. SEE ALSO: Georgia municipalities not enforcing immigration could have sovereign immunity waived The backstory "Our immigrant communities are feeling terrorized right now," Georgia State Senator Nabilah Islam Parkes told FOX 5. "They're afraid." Democratic State Senator Nabilah Islam Parkes (D-Duluth) represents one of the most diverse counties in the state. She brought civil rights groups and attorneys together for a community hearing at the State Capitol on Friday to discuss mass deportations, the controversial immigration bills being considered by the state legislature, and to inform community members of their legal rights. What they're saying One speaker told senators that her family fled their own country because they were being persecuted and said that now they are facing the same thing in the U.S. The woman said that the undocumented immigrants are not criminals and are in this country to live with dignity. Participants are also concerned about Senate Bill 21, which would waive sovereign immunity for local governments that violate Georgia's sanctuary city ban. Dig deeper Sovereign immunity protects local governments from lawsuits. If Senate Bill 21 becomes law, the state would strip cities, counties, and their employees of that legal protection if they don't cooperate with federal immigration officials. The measure passed the Senate along party lines on Thursday. Republican State Senator Blake Tillery (R-Vidalia) is sponsoring the legislation and said the bill will save lives. Local perspective Democrats oppose the measure, saying it would open up governments to frivolous lawsuits and strain law enforcement resources. The Source FOX 5's Deidra Dukes spoke with Georgia lawmakers and opponents to immigration enforcement at the state level.
Yahoo
14-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Georgia Senate targets local governments over immigration enforcement
Local government officials and employees who violate a state law requiring them to cooperate with federal immigration authorities could face new financial consequences under legislation adopted by the Georgia Senate Thursday. Senate Bill 21 passed 33-18 in a near party-line vote in the Republican-dominated chamber. The legislation would strip local governing bodies and law enforcement agencies that violate the state law of the "sovereign immunity" that shields them from lawsuits. It would also remove what's called "governmental immunity" from individual local officials, employees and law enforcement officers, likewise exposing them to the risk of lawsuits. The measure "just adds teeth to Georgia law," said Sen. Blake Tillery, R-Vidalia, the bill's sponsor. It is a crime in Georgia to "knowingly and willfully" refuse to comply with a federal request to hold a non-citizen for potential deportation or federal custody. It's also illegal to enact, adopt, implement, or enforce any "sanctuary" policy prohibiting cooperation or the sharing of immigration status information with federal immigration authorities. SB 21 is a backlash against a "sanctuary city" movement nationally that aims to withhold information about immigrants from federal agents. Democrats and Republicans agreed Thursday that no local government has violated the existing state law. This led Democrats to question why Republicans were introducing the threat of lawsuits and the potential resulting costs for taxpayers. Sen. Nabilah Islam Parkes, D-Duluth, said opening the way for more lawsuits contradicts Gov. Brian Kemp and Republican lawmakers' push for "tort reform" legislation that would reduce payouts in lawsuits. The bill could expose rank and file employees, such as teachers, to lawsuits by zealous immigration opponents, she said. "The right to sue teachers act, that's what this bill is," Parkes said. "There is no sanctuary city in Georgia, not a single one, but SB 21 pretends there is a problem." Democrats also said the measure would impose additional costs on local law enforcement to house and staff their jails. Tillery dismissed these criticisms. Local jails are already obliged to detain suspects sought by immigration authorities, so there should be no added cost from SB 21, he said. And teachers would only become exposed to a lawsuit "if we had third graders committing rapes and murders," he said. The debate about teachers stemmed from a hearing last week, when Megan Gordon, policy director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, warned that SB 21 could expose teachers to lawsuits if they follow federal court precedent prohibiting the collection and reporting of students' immigration status. The legislation now moves to the Georgia House of Representatives. This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: SB21 will remove immunities from officials who do not comply with immigration officers
