---
title: HB 672. Georgia Dignity in Pregnancy and Childbirth Act; enact
collection: bills
id: 2025-2026/hb672
cite_as: HB 672, 2025-2026 Regular Session (Ga.)
canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026/hb672
md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026/hb672.md
text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026/hb672/text
source_url: https://www.legis.ga.gov/legislation/70973
date: 2025-03-03
status: introduced
corpus_version: bills-2026-09-12
license: Public record of the Georgia General Assembly, via LegiScan; see about.md
publisher: Georgia Commons, an independent project of Georgia Civic Data. Not the State of Georgia. Not legal advice.
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omitted: votes and history
omitted_chars: 129
omitted_url: https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026/hb672.md?full=1
bill_number: HB 672
session: 2025-2026 Regular Session
session_slug: 2025-2026
chamber: House
bill_type: bill
status_date: 2025-02-27
last_action: House Second Readers
sponsors:
- Park Cannon
- Debra Bazemore
- Tanya Miller
- Karen Bennett
text_version: Introduced
has_text: true
legiscan_url: https://legiscan.com/GA/bill/HB672/2025
upstream_id: 1987892
summaries_model: claude-sonnet-5
topic_tags:
- maternal health
- implicit bias training
- pregnancy and childbirth
- public health data
- hospital regulations
---
# HB 672. Georgia Dignity in Pregnancy and Childbirth Act; enact
## Text
House Bill 672
By: Representatives Cannon of the 58th, Bazemore of the 69th, Miller of the 62nd, and Bennett
of the 94th
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
To amend Chapter 2A of Title 31 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to the
Department of Public Health, so as to enact the "Georgia Dignity in Pregnancy and
Childbirth Act"; to provide for definitions; to require perinatal facilities in this state to
implement evidence based implicit bias programs for its healthcare professionals; to require
certain components in such programs; to provide for initial and refresher training; to provide
for the compilation and tracking of data on severe maternal morbidity and pregnancy related
deaths; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF GEORGIA:
SECTION 1.
Chapter 2A of Title 31 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to the Department
of Public Health, is amended by adding a new article to read as follows:
"ARTICLE 4
31-2A-60.
This article shall be known and may be cited as the 'Georgia Dignity in Pregnancy and
Childbirth Act.'
31-2A-61.
As used in this article, the term:
(1) 'Healthcare professional' means a physician or other healthcare practitioner licensed,
accredited, or certified to perform specified physical, mental, or behavioral health care
services consistent with his or her scope of practice under the laws of this state.
(2) 'Implicit bias' means a bias in judgment or behavior that results from subtle cognitive
processes, including implicit prejudice and implicit stereotypes that often operate at a
level below conscious awareness and without intentional control.
(3) 'Implicit prejudice' means prejudicial negative feelings or beliefs about a group that
a person holds without being aware of them.
(4) 'Implicit stereotypes' means the unconscious attributions of particular qualities to a
member of a certain social group. Implicit stereotypes are influenced by experience and
are based on learned associations between various qualities and social categories,
including race or gender.
(5) 'Perinatal care' means the provision of care during pregnancy, labor, delivery, and
postpartum and neonatal periods.
(6) 'Perinatal facility' means a hospital, clinic, or birthing center that provides perinatal
care.
(7) 'Pregnancy related death' means the death of a person while pregnant or within 365
days of the end of a pregnancy, irrespective of the duration or site of the pregnancy, from
any cause related to, or aggravated by, the pregnancy or its management, but not from
accidental or incidental causes.
31-2A-62.
(a) Every perinatal facility in this state shall implement an evidence based implicit bias
program for all healthcare professionals involved in the perinatal care of patients within
such facility.
(b) An implicit bias program implemented pursuant to subsection (a) of this Code section
shall include the following:
(1) Identification of previous or current unconscious biases and misinformation;
(2) Identification of personal, interpersonal, institutional, structural, and cultural barriers
to inclusion;
(3) Corrective measures to decrease implicit bias at the interpersonal and institutional
levels, including ongoing policies and practices for that purpose;
(4) Information on the effects, including, but not limited to, ongoing personal effects, of
historical and contemporary exclusion and oppression of minority communities;
(5) Information about cultural identity across racial or ethnic groups;
(6) Information about communicating more effectively across identities, including race,
ethnicity, religion, and gender;
(7) Discussion on power dynamics and organizational decision making;
(8) Discussion on health inequities within the perinatal care field, including information
on how implicit bias impacts maternal and infant health outcomes;
(9) Perspectives of diverse, local constituency groups and experts on particular racial,
identity, cultural, and provider-community relations issues in the community; and
(10) Information on reproductive justice.
(c)(1) A healthcare professional shall complete initial basic training through the implicit
bias program based on the components described in subsection (b) of this Code section.
(2) Upon completion of the initial basic training, a healthcare professional shall complete
a refresher course under the implicit bias program every two years thereafter, or on a
more frequent basis if deemed necessary by the perinatal facility, in order to keep current
with changing racial, identity, and cultural trends and best practices in decreasing
interpersonal and institutional implicit bias.
(d) Each perinatal facility in this state shall provide a certificate of training completion to
another perinatal facility or a training attendee upon request. A perinatal facility may
accept a certificate of completion from another perinatal facility to satisfy the training
requirement contained in this Code section from a healthcare professional who works in
more than one perinatal facility.
(e) If a healthcare professional involved in the perinatal care of patients is not directly
employed by a perinatal facility, the facility shall offer the training to such healthcare
professional.
31-2A-63.
(a)(1) The department shall collect and track data on severe maternal morbidity,
including, but not limited to, all of the following health conditions:
(A) Obstetric hemorrhage;
(B) Hypertension;
(C) Preeclampsia and eclampsia;
(D) Venous thromboembolism;
(E) Sepsis;
(F) Cerebrovascular accident; and
(G) Amniotic fluid embolism.
(2) The data on severe maternal morbidity collected pursuant to this subsection shall be
published at least once every three years after all of the following have occurred:
(A) The data have been aggregated by state regions, as defined by the department, to
ensure the data reflect how regionalized care systems are or should be collaborating to
improve maternal health outcomes, or other smaller regional sorting based on standard
statistical methods for accurate dissemination of public health data without risking a
confidentiality or other disclosure breach; and
(B) The data have been disaggregated by racial and ethnic identity.
(b)(1) The department shall collect and track data on pregnancy related deaths, including,
but not limited to, all of the conditions listed in subsection (a) of this Code section,
indirect obstetric deaths, and other maternal disorders predominantly related to pregnancy
and complications predominantly related to the postpartum period.
(2) The data on pregnancy related deaths collected pursuant to this subsection shall be
published at least once every three years after all of the following have occurred:
(A) The data have been aggregated by state regions, as defined by the department, to
ensure the data reflect how regionalized care systems are or should be collaborating to
improve maternal health outcomes, or other smaller regional sorting based on standard
statistical methods for accurate dissemination of public health data without risking a
confidentiality or other disclosure breach; and
(B) The data have been disaggregated by racial and ethnic identity."
SECTION 2.
All laws and parts of laws in conflict with this Act are repealed.
## Summaries written by Georgia Commons
The following was written by claude-sonnet-5 from the text above and is not part of the bill. Quote the text, not the summary.
A Georgia House bill would require hospitals, clinics, and birthing centers that provide pregnancy and childbirth care to train staff on implicit bias and require the state to track maternal death and complication data by race.
### Plain-language summary
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.
### What it does
- 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.
### Who it affects
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.
### Why it matters
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.
### Key provisions
- 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.
## Status
- Status: Introduced (2025-02-27)
- Last action: House Second Readers (2025-03-03)
- Sponsors: Park Cannon, Debra Bazemore, Tanya Miller, Karen Bennett
- Official page: https://www.legis.ga.gov/legislation/70973
> The history, votes, and amendments (129 characters) are at https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026/hb672.md?full=1