Filmmakers are here now oath to boycott the state of Georgia after the governor signed a controversial abortion bill earlier this week. The boycott is a large deal because, according to the state websiteMore top-grossing films are made in Georgia than anywhere else in the world.
So far, at least three major studios have said they will no longer film in Georgia. One of them is Christine Vachon’s Killer Films, which produced the Oscar-nominated film “Carol” and the Oscar-winning film “Still Alice.”
“Killer Films will no longer consider Georgia as a viable filming location until this absurd law is repealed,” Vachon wrote on Twitter on Thursday.
David Simon, whose Blown Deadline Productions is responsible for HBO’s “The Wire” and “The Deuce,” also announced on Twitter that he would no longer consider filming in Georgia “until we are sure that our colleagues have health conditions in place.” and civil liberties.” are intact.”
“Add my company to the list,” Neal Dodson of CounterNarrative Films tweeted shortly after Vachon and Simon announced their own boycotts. Many people in the film and television industry praised the production companies and urged others to follow suit.
The legislation in question is House Bill 481, also known as the “Fetal Heartbeat Act,” which was signed into law by Governor Kemp on Tuesday. The bill prohibits all abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected – usually around 6 weeks of age. There are exceptions for cases of rape, incest, medical emergencies and pregnancies deemed “medically futile.” The act is scheduled to enter into force in January 2020.
Georgia is not the first state to adopt such restrictive abortion laws. Already this year, heartbeat bills have been passed and signed into law by Republican governors in Kentucky, Mississippi and Ohio. Three months ago, a state judge struck down a similar law in Iowa, saying it violated the Iowa Constitution.
After Georgia lawmakers first passed House Bill 481, the ACLU announced it would sue the state government.
However, Governor Kemp did not seem overly concerned about potential challenges to the bill. At signing, Kemp found that pro-life legislation would likely be “challenged in court,” but promised that Georgia “will always continue to fight for life.”
“This is a historic day for Georgia, for Georgia families and for these precious unborn children,” said Rep. Ginny Ehrhart, one of the co-sponsors of HB 481 Fox and friends Tuesday morning.
However, dozens of pro-abortion Hollywood stars have spoken out against the bill.
“When you ban abortion, women die,” actress Alyssa Milano said during a protest in the state capitol last month. “We cannot continue to allow these white men, middle-aged men, to dictate what we can do with our bodies.”
Georgia is attractive to filmmakers because since 2008, productions shot there have been eligible for a 30 percent tax break. But Governor Kemp is undeterred by boycotts.
“I can’t govern because I’m worried about what anyone in Hollywood will think of me,” Kemp said, according to an anonymous source. report By CBN News. “I’ve spent the last two years working on these issues, and I was elected with the most votes in the history of the state of Georgia, and I’m doing what I told people I would do.”
“Our business environment is good,” he added. “We can’t change our values and who we are because of money. And we’re not going to do that. This is what makes our state great.”
