Netflix to take tough stance against abortion law

ISTANBUL

Streaming mastodon Netflix is taking its first major stance against the U.S. state of Georgia’s newly signed restrictive law on abortion, with the company publicly announcing that it might quit investments in the state.

Netflix would “rethink our entire investment in Georgia” if the abortion law goes into effect, Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos said in a statement on May 27.

“We have many women working on productions in Georgia, whose rights, along with millions of others, will be severely restricted by this law,” he said.

The state of Georgia signed the law on May that bans abortion when a fetal heartbeat is evident, except cases of rape and incest. The law is planned to go into effect from January 2020.

Hollywood has invested big in Georgia the last decade, generating 92,000 jobs in the state and 2.7 billion dollars in annual revenues, according to the New York Times. Huge movie productions such as the “Hunger Games” movies, “Captain America: Civil War” and “Black Panther” were produced in Georgia, along with Netflix’s popular series “Stranger Things” and “Ozark.”

But now the new abortion law is causing tension in the world’s leading film industry.

Earlier this month several actors and directors called for a total boycott of the state, but the film industry as a whole is more careful to take a decision on this delicate issue.

Netflix is the first major Hollywood actor to state that it might leave productions in Georgia after the controversial law.