G-CAPP Policy and Advocacy News

2007 Georgia General Assembly Update
The Georgia General Assembly, which has been in recess, has completed day 33 of the 40 day legislative session and will be back in session tomorrow. The 2008 budget has not yet been finalized by the House. We will provide updates on a weekly basis during the session regarding bills and issues that affect adolescents and public health.

Legislation of Interest

SB 219 (Sen. William Hamrick, 30th) would provide for the seizure and forfeiture of motor vehicles used to facilitate certain sexual offenses including child molestation. The bill intends to impede the ability of child molesters to use cars as a way to reach their victims, and the sale of seized cars would provide additional funding for law enforcement efforts. The bill passed in the Senate unanimously and is before the House Judiciary Non-Civil Committee.

Budgetary Issues

The proposed Department of Education fiscal year 2008 budget includes an allocation for the placement of school completion counselors in public middle schools in Georgia, in addition to the counselors funded for each high school in the prior year’s budget, as part of a concerted effort to reduce the number of high school dropouts. Georgia ranks 48th in the nation in the percentage of teens ages 16 to 19 who are high school dropouts. In addition, teen mothers are less likely to complete high school than other similarly situated young women, and lack of school engagement is as an early warning sign for teen pregnancy.

The Juvenile Justice Fund has made an appropriation request to improve services for the child victims of commercial sexual exploitation through the establishment of a regional assessment center, to be used instead of detention facilities, where victims can undergo a thorough assessment of their needs before being referred to a longer-term placement for treatment. Metropolitan Atlanta has become a national hub for child prostitution and trafficking, and these children are at high risk for substance abuse, depression, and teen pregnancy. Children who have been sexually-exploited need appropriate therapeutic services to recover from this abuse, while putting child victims in youth detention centers often makes their difficulties worse.

The proposed budget for fiscal year 2008 for the Department of Human Resources includes $4.3 million to purchase the new human papilloma virus (HPV) Cervical Cancer Prevention Vaccine for underinsured children. In 2006, the FDA approved a new vaccine for young women and girls that protects against infection by certain strains of HPV, the most common sexually transmitted infection in the US. HPV is the major cause of cervical cancer, which leads to 3,700 deaths in the US annually. A bill to make the vaccine mandatory for girls entering the sixth grade has not moved forward this session.

Babies Born Healthy is the only government program that pays for prenatal care for low income pregnant women who do not qualify for Medicaid. Due to the growing number of women in this category in Georgia, the program has consistently run out of funds before the fiscal year ends. The women who are eligible but not served due to lack of funds usually end up appearing at a hospital to deliver their baby having had no prenatal care. The House version of the Amended Fiscal Year 2007 budget included $1 million in additional funding for Babies Born Healthy.

Investing in Prevention is Sound Fiscal Policy
A recent report found that teen childbearing in Georgia cost federal, state and local taxpayers at least $344 million in 2004. As tax day approaches, the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy has added a feature to their web site that estimates the total annual taxpayer costs of teen births by county as well.

To find the annual public costs of teen births in your county, visit this site, select "Georgia", and enter the total number of teen births for your county in 2004 (to find this number, click here, select your region on the map, locate your county on the table, and use the number in the first column.)

Track 2007 Legislation
For the latest updates on legislation, visit the General Assembly web site and search by the bill number in the top right hand corner of the page. You may also find information for contacting bill sponsors and other legislators on the General Assembly web site, or find your legislators here. To follow legislative issues that G-CAPP is working on, click here.

G-CAPP Fast Fact
The approximate cost to taxpayers of the 1251 children born to teens in Fulton County in 2004 was $26,579,000.

Source: "By the Numbers", The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy.