Georgia House passes bill expanding access to maternal mortality records for review committee

The Georgia House on March 3, 2025, passed House Bill 89, a committee substitute designed to strengthen the state’s maternal mortality review process by clarifying access to psychiatric and other clinical records and establishing parameters for perinatal care centers, Representative Cooper told the chamber.

Cooper said the bill aims to improve the state’s ability to determine causes of maternal deaths by ensuring the Maternal Mortality Review Committee (MMRC) can obtain psychiatric and clinical records that were previously difficult to access. The substitute also sets guidelines for perinatal regional care centers and clarifies which entity conducts autopsies in maternal death cases.

Representative Cannon and other supporters framed the bill as a necessary step to address Georgia’s maternal mortality crisis, emphasizing transportation barriers and racial disparities that disproportionately affect Black and rural mothers. Cannon urged colleagues to “lean in” on perinatal resources and noted that prior delays in MMRC staffing had hindered review work; she said some members formerly on the MMRC were disbanded earlier in the year and that an amendment to guarantee the MMRC would never be without appointees was not adopted.

Chairman Cooper said a new MMRC had been convened after an earlier committee faced confidentiality problems; the governor and public health commissioner favored a restart to preserve the integrity of reviews. Representative McQueen asked rhetorically whether access to complete medical and mental‑health records was necessary to craft effective policy; the floor record included multiple parliamentary exchanges on the subject. The committee substitute was adopted and the bill passed on a roll call in which the Chair recorded 68 yeas and 7 nays.