HR 274: General Assembly; appropriate an additional $2 million annually to the Georgia Pregnancy and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program; urge

This resolution, called the 'Fund Healthy Pregnancy and Parenting Resolution,' does not change Georgia law by itself. Instead it urges the General Assembly to shift about $2 million in annual funding away from the state's roughly 89 crisis pregnancy centers and put that money into the Georgia Pregnancy and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program, a Department of Public Health effort that sends home visitors to at-risk and rural families during pregnancy and early childhood. The resolution argues the home visiting program has produced positive results and that crisis pregnancy centers, which it describes as often opposing abortion rather than offering full reproductive care, need less funding now that abortion is restricted after six weeks in Georgia. It states the proposal would not cost taxpayers any additional money, since it simply moves existing funds from one program to another. The resolution directs the House Clerk to send copies to legislative leaders.

• Urges the General Assembly to add $2 million annually to the Georgia Pregnancy and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program.
• Calls for that $2 million to come from funds currently appropriated to crisis pregnancy centers, not from new taxpayer money.
• States a goal of improving birth outcomes, reducing preterm deliveries, and decreasing infant and maternal mortality through the home visiting program.
• Directs the Clerk of the House of Representatives to distribute copies of the resolution to the General Assembly's legislative leaders.

The Georgia Pregnancy and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program and the Department of Public Health, which administers it, along with the state's roughly 89 crisis pregnancy centers that currently receive state funding, and pregnant Georgians and families in at-risk or rural communities who use either type of service.

If lawmakers act on this resolution, crisis pregnancy centers across Georgia could lose their current state funding while a home visiting program serving pregnant and postpartum families in underserved areas could receive more money, changing which services the state prioritizes for expectant and new parents.

• The preamble notes the Governor's Fiscal Year 2026 budget already proposed adding about $2.98 million to expand the pilot home visiting program.
• The resolution asserts the most recent state budget appropriated approximately $2 million to fund crisis pregnancy centers.
• The operative resolving clause urges the General Assembly to appropriate an additional $2 million annually to the home visiting program in lieu of funding crisis pregnancy centers.
• A further resolving clause directs the House Clerk to make copies available to the General Assembly's legislative leaders.
• As a resolution rather than a bill, it expresses the House's position and does not itself enact a budget change.

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)

• pregnancy and maternal health
• crisis pregnancy centers
• state budget
• abortion policy
• infant mortality