Senate · Introduced · 2025-2026 Regular Session

SB246: SB246 "Reproductive Freedom Act"; enact

Last action February 26, 2025 · Senate Read and Referred

A Georgia Senate bill would repeal the state's criminal abortion ban and the Woman's Right to Know Act, create a new legal right to abortion and contraception, and require Medicaid to cover abortion care.

In plain language

Georgia currently restricts abortion through several laws, including a criminal ban with limited exceptions, the Woman's Right to Know Act, parental notification requirements for minors, and a ban on abortion coverage in certain insurance plans and Medicaid. This bill, called the Reproductive Freedom Act, would repeal most of those restrictions and replace them with a new chapter of law declaring that every pregnant individual has a fundamental right to choose to carry a pregnancy to term or have an abortion, and a right to choose or refuse contraception or sterilization. The bill removes the state's criminal abortion statute, repeals the Woman's Right to Know Act and the law on physicians' obligations before performing abortions, and bars state or local law enforcement from arresting people for obtaining, performing, or aiding an abortion. It also lets local governments pass more protective (but not more restrictive) rules, requires Medicaid to pay for abortion and related services, removes bans on abortion coverage in state employee health plans and qualified health plans, and adds exceptions to when a physician must notify a minor's parent about a pending abortion. It keeps a heartbeat-based definition of an unborn child for tax dependent purposes.

What the bill does

Repeals Georgia's criminal abortion statute (O.C.G.A. Chapter 12 of Title 16, Article 5) by designating it as reserved, eliminating criminal penalties for performing an abortion.
Creates a new legal chapter declaring a fundamental right to choose abortion, contraception, or sterilization and bars the state from denying or interfering with that right.
Bars state or local police from arresting anyone for obtaining, performing, or aiding an abortion performed under the new law, and protects people who assist a pregnant person from civil or criminal liability.
Repeals the Woman's Right to Know Act and the law on a physician's obligations before performing an abortion (O.C.G.A. Title 31), removing related counseling and waiting period requirements.
Requires the Department of Community Health to pay for all abortion and abortion related services for Medicaid recipients, and removes bans on abortion coverage in state employee insurance plans and certain qualified health plans.
Adds new exceptions letting a healthcare professional skip notifying a minor's parent before an abortion if notice could cause physical or emotional harm and the minor can give informed consent, or if the professional cannot reach the parent despite reasonable effort.

Who it affects

Pregnant individuals and minors seeking abortions, physicians, advanced practice nurses, and physician assistants who provide reproductive care, Medicaid recipients, state employees on state health plans, insurers offering qualified health plans, local law enforcement agencies, juvenile courts, and county and local governments considering their own reproductive health ordinances.

Why it matters

If enacted, abortion would no longer be a crime in Georgia, minors could sometimes bypass parental notification, Medicaid and state employee insurance would have to cover abortion care, and people who help someone get an abortion would be shielded from arrest or lawsuits, reshaping daily access to reproductive healthcare statewide.

Key provisions

Section 3 keeps the legal definition of a natural person to include an unborn child with a detectable heartbeat for population counting purposes, while removing an earlier proposed change defining all unborn children as natural persons.
Section 6 rewrites the Parental Notification Act (O.C.G.A. §15-11-682) to add exceptions when notifying a parent could cause harm or when the provider cannot locate the parent after reasonable effort.
Section 7 repeals Article 5 of Chapter 12 of Title 16, Georgia's criminal abortion statute, and marks it reserved.
Section 16 repeals the Woman's Right to Know Act and replaces Chapter 9A of Title 31 with the new 'Reproductive Freedom Act,' establishing fundamental rights to abortion and contraception and barring arrests for abortion-related conduct.
Section 17 repeals Chapter 9B of Title 31, concerning a physician's obligations before performing an abortion.
Section 20 repeals O.C.G.A. §33-24-59.17, which had prohibited coverage of certain abortions through qualified health plans.
Section 26 keeps an income tax provision letting an unborn child with a detectable heartbeat count as a dependent minor for state tax purposes.
Section 27 adds a new Medicaid provision (O.C.G.A. §49-4-156.2) requiring the Department of Community Health to pay for abortion and abortion related services for Medicaid recipients.

Status timeline

2025-02-26Senate Read and Referred (Senate)
2025-02-24Senate Hopper (Senate)

Topics

abortion rights
reproductive healthcare
Medicaid coverage
parental notification
health insurance coverage