As Keisha Lance Bottoms prepares to begin her tenure as the country’s first Black female governor in January, one of the promises she’s working on fulfilling is repealing Georgia’s restrictive abortion law.
The former Atlanta mayor told reporters at the state Capitol on Nov. 6 that talks will begin soon among lawmakers to address the law, which prohibits abortions around six weeks of pregnancy.
“We know that whole ballot energy has helped [Democrats] flip the House, and we have some very thin margins in the Senate. So we’ll begin to have those conversations, and we’ll see if it can be done soon,” Bottoms said, according to The Atlanta-Journal Constitution.
On the campaign trail, Bottoms told Capital B Atlanta in May 2025 that if she was elected governor, she would use her authority to reverse the state’s abortion restrictions.
She pointed to the death of Adriana Smith, a Black pregnant woman forced to remain on life support to keep her fetus alive although she was declared medically brain dead, as one of the negative consequences of keeping the law in place.
“You know, it’s the South, people are still very conservative [with] their thoughts on abortion and what that means. I respect that, but it’s also about women who are experiencing miscarriages,” Bottoms said.
“And now it’s about a young woman who has been declared brain dead, and her family does not have the ability, in consultation with her doctor, to make a decision as to whether or not she’ll remain on life support. I don’t think any family, no matter what you think about abortions, wants to be faced with that dilemma,” she said. “So I will use everything in my power as governor to take us back to Roe v. Wade, the law of the land for 50 years that served this country well.”
Before Smith’s case was made public, reports came out about two Black women in Georgia, Candi Miller and Amber Nicole Thurman, who died after attempting home abortions.
Miller and Thurman died after Georgia’s anti-abortion law was instituted, which advocates say can be blamed for the women’s deaths.
Kwajelyn Jackson, executive director of the Feminist Center for Reproductive Liberation, an Atlanta women’s clinic, said she feels hopeful about the future of reproductive rights in Georgia with the state’s new leadership.
“We have seen how harmful and deadly the Georgia abortion ban has been on our communities over the past 4 years. If we are able to restore abortion access in this state, it would benefit thousands, if not millions of people in Georgia and across the southeast,” Jackson said. “We are ready to meet the reproductive healthcare needs of people as soon as the law allows it. I am hopeful about the possibilities that now exist for Georgia for the first time in a long time.”
In a statement sent to Capital B Atlanta, Monica Simpson, the executive director of SisterSong: Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, said that the midterm results were a victory for reproductive justice.
“These wins are for Amber, Candi, Adrianna and the countless Black, Brown, queer, trans and immigrant people, young and old, whose lives have been lost or forever changed by the violence inflicted by this administration,” Simpson said. “We honor them not just by celebrating these victories, but by continuing to resist. Their stories remind us why we fight and why we won’t stop now.
“We will continue organizing, advocating, and building power until every person who has historically been pushed to the margins has the resources, rights, access, and support to make decisions about their bodies, families, and futures,” she said.
Angel Williams, the co-executive director of ARC Southeast, said that the state’s new leadership has a chance to turn Georgia into “a regional leader in reproductive justice.”
“Since Georgia’s ridiculous abortion ban took effect in 2022, we’ve answered thousands of calls from people forced to leave their own state — often their own region — just to get basic care,” Williams said. “It has made prenatal and reproductive care more dangerous for all Georgians, and it has even taken the lives of several people including Amber Nicole Thurman and Candi Miller. Everyday we speak with callers worried about paying for their abortion on top of mounting costs in every area of their life, many of whom are struggling parents, college students, and rural residents.
“Rolling back this ban is the best place to start and should be a top priority for any incoming politician, especially those who made reproductive freedom a major campaign talking point. It would define their political career as a fighter for reproductive access,” she said.
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