ATLANTA — More than 50 years ago, Susie Beall experienced unthinkable pain, when she says her own father repeatedly raped her at their metro Atlanta home, leaving her pregnant at 13 years old.
“Carrying your own father’s child is one of the most disgusting feelings that a child can have, said Beall. “And when I look back on that, I know that he contaminated my entire youth.”
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Now, she’s worried more Georgia girls will experience that same pain.
While Georgia’s new heartbeat abortion law does allow for exceptions for victims of rape and incest, it also says they must file a police report to receive an abortion.
But Beall says many victims of incest are afraid to tell on relatives – sometimes out of concern for their own safety.
“That’s why I stayed quiet because I knew my father would kill me. I knew it,” said Beall.
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A spokesperson for the Georgia governor’s office told Channel 2 that the police report provision was put in the law to make sure expectant mothers are safe and supported.
And on Wednesday Governor Brian Kemp told us agencies are ready to guide women and girls through the law.
“Georgia’s public, private and non-profit sectors stand ready to provide the resources they need to be safe, healthy and informed,” said Kemp.
However, others we spoke to, like Abigail Darnell from Georgia Right to Life, believe the law doesn’t go far enough and should ban abortion in all cases, because she says it’s murder.
“I don’t think we’ll have true justice until there is no murder legal in Georgia,” said Darnell.
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As for Beall, in the days before Roe v. Wade, she says she eventually gave birth – to her father’s child.
“There was an explosion that went off in my head – that I was never going to be like the other girls,” said Beall.
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