Avoid States That Might Make Your Miscarriage A Felony
By 
This is entirely appropriate action:
Georgia, no stranger to threats of boycotts due to controversial legislation, finds itself at risk of another filming debacle.
On Tuesday, the state’s Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signed a piece of legislation that’s been dubbed the “heartbeat bill” that bans abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected, which can be as early as six weeks into a pregnancy. It does, however, include exceptions, such as to save the live of the mother or for rape and incest — but only if a woman files a police report. As a result, some industry figures are calling on Hollywood to withdraw production for the state.
Alyssa Milano, June Diane Raphael and George Takei all spoke up in late March when the bill was approved in the Georgia General Assembly with a 92 to 78 vote. Now, Killer Films, the production banner behind such movies as Vox Lux, First Reformed and Carol, is taking action. CEO Christine Vachon tweeted on Thursday morning that the company will “no longer consider Georgia as a viable shooting location until this ridiculous law is overturned.”
The Wire and The Deuce creator David Simon, who runs Blown Deadline Productions, similarly tweeted about the law. “I can’t ask any female member of any film production with which I am involved to so marginalize themselves or compromise their inalienable authority over their own bodies. I must undertake production where the rights of all citizens remain intact,” he said, further explaining in another tweet: “Can only speak for my production company. Our comparative assessments of locations for upcoming development will pull Georgia off the list until we can be assured the health options and civil liberties of our female colleagues are unimpaired.”
Simon gets the issue exactly right. The question of whether to boycott locations to influence public policy is a tricky one. But this goes beyond that: the bodily autonomy of women is being directly threatened by these states. Certainly, no academic association should even consider hosting a conference in a jurisdiction where every pregnant woman is a potential criminal, and once Roe is overruled it’s going to be a frighteningly long list.
…must-read thread on the barbaric Georgia law:
This bill is nothing short of abuse. It strips away the autonomy of women. It says that we are nothing but vessels. It declares me null and void. It desecrates the memory of my dead daughter. My rage is boundless.— Amber J. Keyser (@amberjkeyser) May 10, 2019