ATLANTA — About a month ago, as speculation grew that the U.S. Supreme Court was preparing to overturn the landmark decision that made abortion legal throughout the country, Planned Parenthood's Southeastern office quietly created a new position.
The new staffer, based in Atlanta, was envisioned as essentially an abortion air traffic controller for a post-Roe v. Wade South, a region likely to take away or severely restrict access to the procedure if the federal constitutional protection is lifted. Among the staffer's duties would be helping pregnant women get to states where abortion remained legal.
While Planned Parenthood was laying the groundwork for how it might respond to such a Supreme Court decision, Mike Griffin was shoring up his relationships with state lawmakers. Griffin, a longtime lobbyist for the Georgia Baptist Mission Board, sensed that the day was coming that local elected officials, not judges, would have the final say on abortion access.
