One of the biggest stories in the film and TV industry is also one of the most polarizing stories to affect the United States in 2019 — the new restrictive anti-choice laws. And as we reported recently, Georgia seems to be the battleground state that will come into play with a lot of Hollywood studios, as everyone decides how they want to approach the Southern state in the wake of the recent “heartbeat bill” that is said to go into law next year. And according to one of the executives at Netflix, if the bill does become law in January, one of the biggest studios to do business in Georgia might decide to leave the state.
Georgia has an anti-choice bill that is making its way through the local state government that will basically outlaw abortion (for all intents and purposes), despite Supreme Court precedent. And because of this, Hollywood studios, such as Netflix, are deciding whether or not they want to bring productions to the state, which is one of the hotbeds of filming outside of California.
In a statement to Variety, Netflix executive Ted Sarandos says that if Georgia brings the new bill into law, the company will have to figure out if it wants to stay in the state.
“We have many women working on productions in Georgia, whose rights, along with millions of others, will be severely restricted by this law,” Sarandos said. “It’s why we will work with the ACLU and others to fight it in court.”
He added, “Given the legislation has not yet been implemented, we’ll continue to film there — while also supporting partners and artists who choose not to. Should it ever come into effect, we’d rethink our entire investment in Georgia.”
If you haven’t been following the recent reproductive rights news, you might not know that in the US, there has been a wave of states that have passed new restrictive abortion laws that look to criminalize women and doctors who choose to have an abortion or conduct the procedure. Some states, such as Alabama, have restricted women’s right to choose by saying that anyone who gets an abortion after approximately six weeks (or when a heartbeat can be heard in an ultrasound), and the doctors who administer it, will be prosecuted and sent away to prison.
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If Netflix were to pull productions from Georgia, this could be the first domino to drop that could lead to the state losing billions of dollars. Most of the major studios have massive productions that film in Georgia, with Disney filming many of its Marvel films in the state.
Will this gesture lead to any change in the state? At this point, the local Georgia government officials seem defiant. However, financially speaking, it could deal a massive blow to the state’s economy.