ATLANTA — Abortion took center state center at the Atlanta Press Club debate for attorney general as both major party candidates have opposing views.

Democrat Jen Jordan argued that while she believes in enforcing all state laws, the primary role of the attorney general is to enforce the state constitution.

If elected, she stood by her position of not involving the AG office to prosecute under Georgia’s law outlawing abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected, typically at six weeks of pregnancy

The voters have ratified a constitution with a right of privacy that had been recognized and that voters knew encompassed the actual right to access abortion care or reproductive health care … So that’s why I will make sure that I fight to make sure that the women of this state actually have their rights given back to them while the Attorney General here that we have with us has done everything he could to make sure that they were stripped,” Jordan, a current state senator, said.

“When there’s a conflict between the two, the Constitution controls, so that’s why when I talk about not defending the law, what I do talk about is that I would challenge it in court because I think that is the attorney general’s job,” she said

When questioned, incumbent Republican Chris Carr, said he would still defend a state law if he felt it was unconstitutional.

“The job of the Attorney General, constitution and statute says, [is] to uphold the laws of this state, that’s the role of the attorney general,” he responded. “That is the duty that is under the Constitution and statutes of this state, and I have proudly done that for the past six years.”

Libertarian candidate Martin Cowen also voiced his opposition to the state’s abortion law and his disappointment in the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which protected a woman’s decision to have an abortion.

“I can promise you my prosecutorial discretion would be exercised in not prosecuting doctors and patients who are unfortunate enough to have to deal with that very difficult decision,” Cowen said. “…If one of my associates thought that it was appropriate to do that, I’d send them to a Georgia prison, for example, to prosecute somebody who had been murdered in prison, which I care about very deeply.”

Carr has been vocal in his support for the new law and within hours of the Supreme Court’s decision, he asked an appeal court to immediately allow the law to take effect.

}“I have stood up for the women of this state, fighting to protect human trafficking victims, fighting to protect victims of gangs, fighting those that are being taken advantage of from an elder abuse standpoint, but my opponent has skipped votes,” Carr responded to his opponent’s attacks.

He said the job of the attorney general is to uphold the state’s law, and implied that Jordan should have remained in the legislature to attempt to change the law that she does not suppor

If somebody doesn’t like the law in this state that’s absolutely fine but you run for the legislature or in the case of Sen. Jordan, you don’t quit the legislature,” he said. “You stay and you fight to change those laws, but you don’t run for district attorney and you certainly don’t run for attorney general.”

The state’s abortion law, he clarified, does not have a statute that would allow prosecution of women who get an abortion. The law allows for prosecution of providers of an abortion at the discretion of a local district attorney, he said.

Crime and safety

Cowen opposes gun laws and also opposes police patrolling with military-styled firearms.

“My model for police behavior is that of the Andy Griffith Show … Sheriff Andy Taylor of Mayberry, North Carolina, who didn’t have a gun, who’d walk around the streets being pleasant to his constituents. That’s my model for police,” Cowen said

Jordan said while a believer in the Second Amendment right to bear arms, she supports gun laws such a safe storage requirements, red flag laws, universal background checks

“As the next attorney general, I’m going to work with local police departments and agencies to get illegal guns off the streets and out of violent street gangs,” Jordan said. “With respect to the attorney general that we have right now, he has not been doing that and has been supporting bills that let illegal guns proliferate.”

Carr rebutted, saying he’s protected lives through the creation of the state’s human trafficking unit and gang unit, and accused Jordan of missing key votes in the senate that address crime, including a bill to increase penalties on domestic violence with weapons.

”I’m proud of the unit that we have, and we’re going to continue to do it including going after those who use illegal guns or you illegally use them,” Carr said.

Carr vs. Jordan

In a recent 11 Alive poll released earlier this month, Carr had a 4 point lead among nearly 1,100 likely Georgia voters. Forty percent indicated plans to vote for Carr, while 36% planned to voted for Jordan. Twenty percent of pollsters were undecided.

Carr’s affiliation with St. Louis-based Centene Corp. was also a target during the Oct. 18 debate. The company’s executives have donated more than $70,000 to Carr’s campaign; the company, however, is accused of inflating drug costs in the state’s Medicaid program, and if Carr is reelected, he will likely be involved with a lawsuit settlement with the company.

“My one goal as attorney general is to always vigorously defend our client, the agencies that are the state agencies,” he said in response to being questioned on the potential conflict of interest. “But most importantly, the people of our state. I’m proud of the record that I have and I’ve put together for the last six years serving as attorney general.”

Jordan asked Carr if he planned to continue putting “personal interest and the interest of corporate donors” ahead of people of Georgia, referencing his affiliation with the company.

Carr responded that he believes in the free enterprise system, and attacked Jordan’s absence in the senate during votes, including a vote to prevent decreasing funding to police departments in the state.

She countered by accusing Carr of failing to act when a company was allegedly emitting carcinogens and accused Carr of failing to intervene in the high-profile case of a Black man murdered in the streets of Brunswick by three white men.

“Ask the people of Brunswick how you didn’t show up to do anything about the failure to prosecute the murderers of that young man, Ahmaud Arbery, until the video was released to the public,” Jordan said.