A New Bill for the New Year!
We had a wonderful holiday break and hit the ground running with a brand new bill! Unfortunately that does mean that we have a NEW BILL NUMBER to reference, but legislators are use to this happening. You can read it here and please take a moment to send a thank you to our Sponsors (Rep. Karen Mathiak, Rep. Timothy Barr) and signers (Rep. Darlene Taylor, Rep. Ginny Ehrhart, Rep. Rick Williams, Rep. Danny Mathis)!
If you are feeling confused about the change in numbers (last year was HB717, this year HB910), just remember that you can always refer to the “Georgia Licensed Midwife Act” because that has not changed.
Now it’s your turn to hit the ground running!!!!
Sign up (Pretty please!)
To better organize ourselves when we need to call on folks that live in certain districts, we ask everyone to complete this form. Guess what? If you still don’t know WHO your reps are, you will discover it as your complete this form and we can help you remember. Aren’t midwives so nice?
Show Up
The Legislative Team will be at the capitol three days a week to escort you to encounters with your representatives! This is actually a fascinating and exciting way to engage with government, so please bring the whole family if you can. You can schedule an appointment with your legislator any of these afternoons, or come in the morning to call them to ropes. Details HERE. Click each event for details and how to sign up.
Donate
Georgia Families have been putting their money where their mouth is! We are over halfway to our funding goal of $20,000 to pay for lobbying expenses!
Our national covering had some exciting news to share at the end of 2019! Funding to educate midwives that was included this past summer in the House appropriations bill, is part of this final legislation. The President signed this Act December 20th.
This legislation allocates $2,500,000 to educate midwives within the Scholarships for Disadvantaged Students (SDS) Program in Title VII of the Public Health Service Act. For the first time ever, midwives enrolled in accredited programs will be included in the categories of students eligible to receive SDS scholarships. This funding within the SDS program will increase the number of midwifery graduates working in underserved communities and those from disadvantaged backgrounds, including students who are members of racial and ethnic minority groups.
Yes! Once Georgia licenses CPMs, our student midwives will be able to take part in addressing a shortage of maternity care providers by receiving education funded in part by our national government. If our national government believes in CPMs, so should Georgia!