HR274: HR274 General Assembly; appropriate an additional $2 million annually to the Georgia Pregnancy and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program; urge

This resolution does not change Georgia law by itself; it expresses the House's position on how the state budget should allocate funding. It calls on the General Assembly to add $2 million annually to the Georgia Pregnancy and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program, which sends health workers to visit at-risk families during pregnancy and early childhood to improve birth outcomes and reduce infant and maternal deaths. The resolution asks that this money come from funds currently going to crisis pregnancy centers, nonprofit organizations that counsel pregnant women against abortion, rather than from new taxpayer spending. It cites the roughly 89 crisis pregnancy centers operating in Georgia and about $2 million currently appropriated to them, and argues that with the state's abortion restrictions after six weeks, demand for those centers' services should be declining. The resolution directs the House Clerk to send copies to legislative leaders.

• Urges the General Assembly to add $2 million per year in funding to the Georgia Pregnancy and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program.
• Calls for that funding to replace, rather than add to, roughly $2 million currently appropriated to crisis pregnancy centers.
• States a nonbinding legislative opinion rather than enacting a binding budget change or amending any Georgia statute.
• Directs the Clerk of the House to distribute copies of the resolution to the General Assembly's legislative leaders.

The Department of Public Health, which runs the home visiting program; pregnant women and families in at-risk and rural communities who use in-home visit services; and the roughly 89 crisis pregnancy centers in Georgia that currently receive state funding.

If the General Assembly follows this resolution's request in the actual budget bill, home visiting services aimed at reducing preterm births and infant and maternal deaths could expand, while crisis pregnancy centers could lose the state funding they currently receive.

• States the resolution's title as the 'Fund Healthy Pregnancy and Parenting Resolution.'
• Notes the Governor's Fiscal Year 2026 budget proposal already includes $2.98 million to expand the home visiting pilot program in rural and underserved areas.
• Cites approximately 89 crisis pregnancy centers in Georgia and about $2 million in current state funding to them.
• Resolves that the House urges the General Assembly to add $2 million annually to the home visiting program in place of funding crisis pregnancy centers.
• Directs the Clerk of the House to distribute copies of the resolution to legislative leaders.

1. 2025-02-20House Second Readers (House)
2. 2025-02-19House First Readers (House)
3. 2025-02-18House Hopper (House)

• Anne Westbrook (D, HD-163)Primary sponsor
• Tanya Miller (D, HD-062)
• Mary Oliver (D, HD-084)
• Marvin Lim (D, HD-098)
• Samuel Park (D, HD-107)
• Shea Roberts (D, HD-052)

• maternal health
• infant mortality
• crisis pregnancy centers
• state budget
• reproductive health policy