Georgia CommonsSB 196: "Pregnancy Center Fraud Prevention Act"; enact
Last action February 19, 2025 · Senate Read and Referred
A Georgia Senate bill would make it illegal for limited services pregnancy centers to use false or misleading advertising about the products and services they offer, and would let the Attorney General and district attorneys sue centers that do.
The summaries below were written by an AI model (claude-sonnet-5) from the text of the bill and are not part of it. Quote the text, not the summary. The stored text is the Introduced version, the latest LegiScan holds.
In plain language
Limited services pregnancy centers, often called crisis pregnancy centers, do not provide abortions or emergency contraception or referrals for them. This bill, called the Pregnancy Center Fraud Prevention Act, amends Georgia's perinatal facilities law (O.C.G.A. Title 31, Chapter 2A) to add definitions for terms like 'advertising,' 'limited services pregnancy center,' and 'pregnancy services center,' and to spell out when a facility counts as having 'the appearance of a medical facility.' The bill bars these centers from disseminating advertising they know or should know is untrue, deceptive, or misleading about what products or services they actually offer. The Attorney General or local district attorneys could bring civil lawsuits after giving centers 10 days written notice to fix the advertising. Courts could order corrective advertising, posted notices about staff credentials and available services, restitution, and civil penalties of $500 to $5,000 per violation. People harmed by the false advertising could also sue directly for damages and other relief. The Attorney General would also have to build an online complaint portal written at a fifth grade reading level.
What the bill does
- Prohibits limited services pregnancy centers from disseminating advertising about their products or services that they know or should know is untrue, deceptive, or misleading.
- Adds new legal definitions for 'advertising,' 'client,' 'limited services pregnancy center,' 'pregnancy services center,' and other terms to Georgia's perinatal facilities law.
- Lets the Attorney General or local district attorneys sue centers civilly, but only after giving 10 days written notice to correct the advertising.
- Allows courts to order corrective advertising, posted disclosure notices, restitution, and civil penalties of $500 to $5,000 per violation.
- Creates a private right of action letting anyone harmed by a center's false advertising sue for compensatory and punitive damages, injunctive relief, and attorney's fees.
- Requires the Attorney General to build a public online complaint portal understandable at a fifth grade reading level and completable in about ten minutes.
Who it affects
Limited services pregnancy centers and their staff, pregnant people or those who may be pregnant seeking counseling, testing, ultrasounds, or prenatal care, the Attorney General's office, local district attorneys, and the Department of Public Health, which maintains a public list of these centers on its website.
Why it matters
If enacted, pregnancy centers that advertise services they don't actually provide, such as implying they offer abortion referrals or medical abortion reversal, could face lawsuits, mandatory corrective notices, and financial penalties. People who feel misled by a center's advertising would gain a direct way to sue for damages.
Key provisions
- Section 2 lists legislative findings, including concerns that some centers use deceptive advertising and target marginalized groups, and states the bill does not limit centers' right to counsel against abortion.
- Section 3 rewrites O.C.G.A. § 31-2A-51 to define 'advertising,' 'client,' 'emergency contraception,' 'limited services pregnancy center,' 'pregnancy services center,' and related terms.
- Section 4 rewrites O.C.G.A. § 31-2A-56 to bar false, deceptive, or misleading advertising by limited services pregnancy centers about their products or services.
- Section 4(c) requires the Attorney General or a district attorney to give 10 days written notice before filing a civil action against a center.
- Section 4(d) lets courts order corrective advertising, posted notices on center premises about staff credentials and available services, restitution, or other tailored relief.
- Section 4(e) sets civil penalties of $500 to $5,000 per violation and requires removing a violating center's contact information from the state's public website.
- Section 4(f) creates a private cause of action for anyone injured by a center's false advertising, allowing compensatory and punitive damages plus attorney's fees.
- Section 4(g)-(h) requires the Attorney General to create an online complaint portal accessible to people with disabilities and readable at a fifth grade level.
From the bill
“the state shall be entitled to recover civil penalties from each and every party responsible for the violation of not less than $500.00 and not more than $5,000.00 per violation”
“Such portal shall be verified through user testing to be understandable for someone with a fifth grade reading level, accessible to people with disabilities, and take an average user no more than ten minutes to complete the complaint form.”
Status timeline
- Senate Read and Referred (Senate)
- Senate Hopper (Senate)
Sponsors
- Nan Orrock (D, SD-036)
- Kim Jackson (D, SD-041)
- Elena Parent (D, SD-044)
- Harold Jones (D, SD-022)
- Sonya Halpern (D, SD-039)
- Nikki Merritt (D, SD-009)
- Kenya Wicks (D, SD-034)
- Jason Esteves (D, SD-035)
- Josh McLaurin (D, SD-014)
- Gail Davenport (D, SD-017)
- Michael Rhett (D, SD-033)
- Randal Mangham (D, SD-055)
- Nabilah Islam Parkes (D, SD-007)
- Sheikh Rahman (D, SD-005)
- Ed Harbison (D, SD-015)
- David Lucas (D, SD-026)
- Emanuel Jones (D, SD-010)
- Tonya Anderson (D, SD-043)
Topics
- pregnancy centers
- reproductive healthcare
- consumer protection
- false advertising
- attorney general enforcement