SUMMARY: Federal budget cuts may impact non-profits providing meals to seniors in Savannah, as a proposal aims to dismantle the Administration for Community Living, which supports older adults and the disabled. Mayor Van Johnson urges lawmakers to reject the proposal and calls for community support for organizations like Senior Citizens Inc. (SCI). SCI’s Meals on Wheels program is vital for many seniors, offering daily meals. Representative Buddy Carter stated that changes at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services aim to improve efficiency but emphasized ongoing uncertainty. SCI is on track to deliver its seven millionth meal this year.

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SUMMARY: During this week’s Equal Pay Day, advocates highlighted that women must work longer to earn what men made the previous year. In 2022, the gender pay gap shrank to its smallest since records began, with women earning about 84% of men’s salaries. However, in 2023, the gap widened again, marking the first significant increase since 2003. Despite the Equal Pay Act of 1963, systemic issues persist, including the “motherhood penalty” affecting women’s career progression. Disparities also exist based on race and ethnicity. Experts emphasize the need for affordable childcare and family leave policies to address these inequities.

Of more than 167 million people, part of the U.S. workforce over 70 million are women.

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by Jill Nolin, Georgia Recorder
March 28, 2025

A proposal to protect access to in-vitro fertilization has been sent to the governor as Georgia lawmakers are proposing a similar measure to protect the right to contraception.

Bipartisan calls to shore up access to IVF began in the wake of an Alabama Supreme Court ruling last year that declared frozen embryos children. The ruling temporarily closed clinics there and created uncertainty nationally.

Georgia’s bill, House Bill 428, glided through the Legislature thanks to support from the state’s most powerful Republicans, including House Speaker Jon Burns, who made the bill one of his priorities for the year.

“We’re one step closer to codifying access to IVF and ensuring that every family in our state facing infertility will never have a question about their access to this life-changing treatment,” Burns told reporters Friday.

The House finalized the bill Friday after the Senate tweaked it this week. Both chambers overwhelmingly passed the measure, and Gov. Brian Kemp has said he supports adding protection for the fertilization treatment.

The bill, sponsored by Statesboro Republican state Rep. Lehman Franklin, defines IVF in state code and says a person cannot be prevented from obtaining the treatment.

Franklin has openly shared his personal story as he has shepherded the bill through the legislative process. He and his wife Lorie struggled to build their family but are now expecting their first child because of IVF.

The bill’s final passage also happened days after House lawmakers held a more than two-hour hearing on House Bill 441, which would expand Georgia’s law to completely ban abortion and charge people with murder for terminating a pregnancy.

Several doctors who spoke at the hearing warned lawmakers that the proposal would end IVF treatment in Georgia. 

When asked about the hearing and that bill’s prospects Friday, Burns told reporters that there’s “nothing that we can’t talk about in the House.” 

“We’ll continue conversations about a wide range of subjects over the remainder of this session and the years to come,” Burns said. “Like all Georgians and like all individuals, we don’t necessarily agree 100% on everything, but I think we’ve worked towards a common good and a common goal, and that’s to make sure we ensure and protect life in Georgia.” 

New proposal would protect access to contraception

A new House bill filed this week mirrors the IVF bill and extends protections to contraception.  

Rep. Sharon Cooper, a Marietta Republican who chairs the House Public and Community Health Committee, said Friday that she filed House Bill 872 because she thought contraception was being left out of the broader conversation about reproductive rights. She said she sees it as a proactive measure.

Contraceptives are commonly used by girls and women throughout their lifetime and for a range of purposes, whether it’s for acne, managing pain, spacing out pregnancies or other reasons.

“They play a major role in a woman’s life,” Cooper said.

Cooper’s bill was filed Thursday with more than a dozen signatures of Republican women lawmakers, including Speaker Pro Tem Jan Jones. With the last day of the 2025 legislative session set for next Friday, rushing it through this year would be a tall order, but it will remain in play for next year. 

Jones, a Milton Republican, said the bill is more about addressing the perception that access to contraception could be in jeopardy.

“This certainly makes it clear that contraception is not up for grabs,” Jones said. “It’s very important to women all over Georgia, and we stand with them, and we are making it clear, whether it passes this year or next year, that the right to contraception is protected and honored in Georgia.” 

Democratic lawmakers and advocates began raising alarm bells about access to contraception after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to an abortion. 

At the time, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas wrote a concurring opinion that the justices should reconsider all the precedents that rely on the substantive due process legal reasoning that kept abortion legal nationwide for nearly half a century. He specifically cited the 1965 Griswold v. Connecticut ruling that recognized married couples’ right to use contraception.

In Georgia, Democrats filed bills last year attempting to protect access to contraception and IVF in the wake of the Alabama ruling. 

Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor John McCosh for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com.

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