Every week through the end of the 2022 Georgia legislative session, the Savannah Morning News will highlight a handful of bills or resolutions under consideration by the Georgia General Assembly and explain why these measure are important to Savannahians.
For the Georgia General Assembly, an election year is often accompanied by controversial, partisan bills, and this year is no different.
With the Republican-controlled legislature's vice grip on both the House of Representatives and the Senate, Georgia will likely find its way into national headlines again this year, as Republicans push through measures that would give parents the power to question school curriculums they don't like, ban transgender athletes from participating in school sports, and require women to make in-person doctor visits to access certain abortion pills.
Senate Bill 456: Abortion pill access
The “Women’s Right to Know” bill prevents women from receiving certain medications in the mail, including the abortion pill Mifeprex, which is used together with another medication called misoprostol to terminate pregnancies up to 10 weeks.
This bill doesn't touch over-the-counter "morning after" pills, like Plan-B.
What it means to you
The abortion pill in question was first approved by the FDA in 2000, and these “medication abortions” have become a preferred method for terminating a pregnancy up until the 10-week mark.
Using the drug requires a doctor visit and follow up appointments. In April 2021, the Biden administration temporarily waived that requirement, allowing the drug to be mailed without an in-person doctor visit.
How local lawmakers feel about it
Savannah's two state senators voted along party lines. Ben Watson, a Republican, voted in favor of the bill, Lester Jackson, a Democrat, voted against it.
“The reason we're doing it is relating to what happened during the pandemic. It was allowed to be mail ordered. There was no physician requirement. There were no lab tests. There were no ultrasounds. So this basically puts that back into place,” Watson said.
He said it
Republican Sen. Bruce Thompson (R-White), a co-sponsor of the legislation, told the Associated Press the bill is meant to make the process more safe for women.
“This bill is simply intended to protect these women from the reckless actions of those mailing these drugs to women without ensuring she receives the proper and necessary care to ensure her health and safety, and that it’s not compromised,” he said.
What’s next
On Tuesday, the bill passed the Senate with a 31-22 vote. Now it goes to the House of Representatives for another vote.
Senate Bill 449: Parental Bill of Rights
The Parents' Bill of Rights gives parents the right to review their child's curriculum and other instructional material during the first two weeks of every nine-week public school period. Principals or superintendents who receive a request for information from a parent would have three business days to provide the requested information.
If the principal or superintendent denies the parent's request or doesn't provide the information within 30 days, the parent can appeal the decision, and the governing body must place the appeal on the agenda for the next public meeting.
Additionally, it includes provisions that are already written into law, allowing parents to pull their students from a public school's sex education curriculum and giving them the option to restrict their child from being photographed or recorded, unless for the purposes of public safety and security.
What it means to you
Critics of the bill say it could create an adversarial relationship between parents and teachers, essentially giving parents the option to formally object to anything that challenges their worldview, what Republican sponsors of the bill called a parent's right.
How local lawmakers feel about it
Sen. Jackson says the bill isn't needed, since parents already have the ability to find out what their students are learning. He fears this bill will encourage parents to be disruptive to the public school curriculum.
"If a parent has a problem with what's being taught in the classroom, there's a lot of other steps they can take. They can go to the principal or the administration, or have a direct student-parent-teacher conversation with that teacher after hours," Jackson said.
Jackson voted against the bill. Watson voted for it.
They said it
“How can you sit here and fight against the rights of parents?” Sen. Matt Brass, (R-Newnan), said last week. “We are simply returning control back to the parents that they have lost.”
What’s next
The bill passed in the Senate with a 33-21 vote along party lines on Feb. 24. Now, it moves to the Georgia House of Representatives for another vote.
Senate Bill 435: Transgender student-athlete ban
The 'Save Girls Sports Act' would ban transgender girls, or those who were born with male reproductive organs, from participating in girls' sports in public schools.
What it means to you
The bill restricts schools from allowing "a person whose gender is male to participate in any interscholastic or intramural athletics that are designated for females."
And despite the bill's name, it would also restrict girls from playing sports designated for boys, unless a girls variant of the sport is not offered at the school. If a girl wanted to play football, she still could, as long as there isn't a girls football team at the school.
The bill's listed qualifications for determining the gender of public school-aged children are "a person's biological sex, and shall be solely recognized based on a person's reproductive biology and genetics at birth," as denoted on the student's birth certificate.
Additionally, the bill would prevent other Georgia schools from competing against others that allow those born with male reproductive organs to play on girls' sports teams, including private schools.
How local lawmakers feel about it
The votes for Savannah's senate representatives were again split by party lines for this bill.
Watson said he voted yes because of "the biology of the Y chromosome."
"If you have the Y chromosome for years, maybe decades, you have bone growth, muscle growth and all of that. So I don't think that's fair," Watson said.
Jackson voted against it, noting he believes "it's important that we make students feel comfortable with who they are."
They said it
Bill sponsor Marty Harbin (R-Tyrone) said that the measure ensures “a level playing field” for girls taking part in youth sports.
"It is our responsibility as legislators and as adults with common sense to resolve this issue and ensure that Georgia's girls aren't robbed of time on the field, a chance for character building, athletic accomplishments and invaluable scholarship," Harbin told Georgia Public Broadcasting.
What’s next
The bill passed the Senate with a 34-22 vote on Feb. 24, also along party lines. Now it moves to the House for another vote.
Read it https://www.legis.ga.gov/legislation/61642
Will Peebles is the enterprise reporter for Savannah Morning News. He can be reached at wpeebles@gannett.com and @willpeeblessmn on Twitter.
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Georgia bills to watch: Abortion pill access, transgender sports ban, parents bill of rights
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