HB672: HB672 Georgia Dignity in Pregnancy and Childbirth Act; enact

This bill, called the Georgia Dignity in Pregnancy and Childbirth Act, would add a new article to Georgia's public health code (O.C.G.A. Title 31, Chapter 2A). It would require every perinatal facility in the state, meaning any hospital, clinic, or birthing center that provides care during pregnancy, labor, delivery, or the postpartum period, to set up an implicit bias training program for healthcare professionals involved in that care. The training would have to cover topics such as identifying unconscious bias, historical exclusion of minority communities, cultural identity, communication across identities, and reproductive justice. Healthcare professionals would need initial training and a refresher course every two years. Facilities would also have to share training certificates with each other on request. Separately, the Department of Public Health would be required to collect and track data on severe maternal health complications and pregnancy related deaths, publish that data at least every three years, and break it down by state region and by racial and ethnic identity.

• Requires every perinatal facility (hospital, clinic, or birthing center providing pregnancy and childbirth care) to implement an evidence based implicit bias training program for healthcare staff.
• Specifies ten required components of the training, including identifying unconscious bias, discussing power dynamics, and covering reproductive justice.
• Requires healthcare professionals to complete initial bias training and a refresher course at least every two years.
• Requires perinatal facilities to provide training certificates on request and to offer training to professionals who are not directly employed by the facility.
• Directs the Department of Public Health to collect, track, and publish data on severe maternal health complications and pregnancy related deaths, broken down by region and by race and ethnicity, at least every three years.

Healthcare professionals who provide pregnancy, labor, delivery, or postpartum care; hospitals, clinics, and birthing centers classified as perinatal facilities; and the Department of Public Health, which would take on new data collection and publication duties.

Healthcare workers involved in childbirth would face new mandatory training requirements, and facilities would need to build and document bias training programs. The state would also begin regularly publishing detailed data on maternal deaths and complications by race, which could shape how maternal health disparities are tracked and discussed in Georgia.

• Section 1 adds new Article 4 to Chapter 2A of Title 31, naming it the 'Georgia Dignity in Pregnancy and Childbirth Act' (O.C.G.A. § 31-2A-60).
• O.C.G.A. § 31-2A-61 defines key terms including 'implicit bias,' 'perinatal facility,' and 'pregnancy related death,' the latter covering deaths within 365 days of the end of a pregnancy linked to it.
• O.C.G.A. § 31-2A-62 requires perinatal facilities to run implicit bias programs with ten listed components and mandates initial training plus refreshers every two years.
• O.C.G.A. § 31-2A-62(d) allows facilities to accept training certificates from other facilities so professionals working at multiple sites are not retrained unnecessarily.
• O.C.G.A. § 31-2A-63 requires the Department of Public Health to track severe maternal morbidity conditions such as hemorrhage, preeclampsia, and sepsis, and to publish aggregated, race disaggregated data at least every three years.
• O.C.G.A. § 31-2A-63(b) applies the same tracking and publication requirement to pregnancy related deaths, including indirect obstetric deaths.
• Section 2 repeals any conflicting state laws.

1. 2025-03-03House Second Readers (House)
2. 2025-02-28House First Readers (House)
3. 2025-02-27House Hopper (House)

• Park Cannon (D, HD-058)Primary sponsor
• Debra Bazemore (D, HD-069)
• Tanya Miller (D, HD-062)
• Karen Bennett (D, HD-094)

• maternal health
• implicit bias training
• pregnancy and childbirth
• public health data
• hospital regulations