Georgia lawmakers move to protect IVF

A bill to guarantee the right to IVF treatment in the state of Georgia has been approved at the first stage.

The bill aims to fill in a legislative gap in which IVF is currently legal but not enshrined in the state law. The proposed law was discussed at Georgia House committee and passed with a unanimous vote. The bill aims to protect access to treatment into a context of broad political debate on the legal definition of personhood and its extension to unborn babies and embryos. The committee heard testimony of parents who underwent IVF.

'In vitro fertilisation is more than the scientific protocols, medications, appointments, and surgeries,' Andrea Kerr, a mother of three children conceived through IVF, told the committee. 'It's finally being able to hang the extra Christmas stocking on the fireplace mantle after saving it for one day just in case... It's singing happy birthday over a cake and watching your first-born child blow out his candles.'

Often in IVF treatment, more embryos are created than are transferred to the uterus. Unused embryos can be donated for research purposes or allowed to perish. This practice is opposed by some anti-abortion groups. Georgia recently introduced restrictive laws on abortion, which prompted concerns that IVF access could be restricted in future. According to the law currently in force in Georgia, abortion is prohibited past six weeks, and fetuses are recognised as legal persons.

The bill was sponsored by Representative Lehman Franklin, who said: 'I feel great. That went very well. I expected it to go well because this issue, from the feedback that I've gotten, is a bipartisan issue. Everybody seems to love it.' Franklin and his wife are currently expecting a daughter, conceived through IVF.

Access to IVF has been an important issue across the USA recently. The Alabama Supreme Court's decision in 2024 to recognise embryos as persons prompted concerns that states may restrict access to IVF (see BioNews 1228 and 1229). Following this decision, both Republican and Democrat parties proposed bills at federal level which aimed to protect access to IVF nationwide, but neither passed through the senate (see BioNews 1243 and 1257). In February 2025, President Trump signed an executive order reiterating his commitment to protecting and expanding access to IVF nationwide (see BioNews 1278).

Franklin said he feels optimistic about the bill's chances. He said: 'If there's any debates or anything that anybody wants to talk about, I'm more than happy to sit down with them and have those discussions and talk to anybody at any time, but the reality is the issue is pretty clear, and the bill is very clear, so there's really not a lot of depth to go into there, other than the human side of the issue.'

While the bill has passed its first stage, it will still need to be discussed and passed in the full House and the Senate before it becomes a state law.