Please use www.legis.ga.gov to follow the legislation!
Currently, SPARK is supporting the following:
HB 475– This legislation is referred to as “Dignity Behind Bars” and would allow more access to menstrual care products for all incarcerated persons as well as more assistance with pumping for parents who have just given birth in order to get their breast milk to caregivers.
HB 280– This is anti-shacking legislation. Currently incarcerated pregnant persons can be shackled during labor and this bill aims to end this practice.
HB 188 – This is the culmination of the work that SPARK has been doing throughout 2018 around Crisis Pregnancy Centers aka Fake Clinics. This legislation would end the $2 million dollar grant program that takes from our Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) to give to Fake Clinics who are unregulated and give misinformation around abortion and reproductive healthcare such as claims that abortion causes breast cancer and that condoms don’t work. The money would go back to the Dept. of Health in order for them to do the great work around STI’s, HIV, and Maternal Mortality that is sorely needed at this time in Georgia.
SPARK is working with our partners to fight back against the following anti-choice and anti-LGBTQ bills:
HB 546 – This legislation is known as a “trigger” ban and it means that if Roe vs. Wade (the landmark Supreme Court case that legalized abortion) is overturned, then abortion would be immediately outlawed in Georgia.
SB 221 – This legislation has been at the statehouse before, it’s an anti-LGBTQ bill masquerading as “Religious Freedom”. It would make it legal for public facing businesses to refuse service to people whom they do not agree with for Religious reasons
SB 218/HB 481 – This legislation is known as the “heartbeat” bill and would make abortion illegal after a heartbeat can be detected which can be as early as 6 weeks; a time frame during which most people don’t know yet that they are pregnant.
Please reach out to your State Representatives to praise them and encourage them to pass our proactive legislation and tell them to stop these anti-choice and anti-LGBTQ bills.
Go to openstates.org and put in your address to find out who your State Representatives are.
