Today, Georgia has one of the lowest Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) monthly benefit amounts in the country- $280 for a family of three, which is woefully insufficient.

Yet, the state developed “suitable home policies” to prevent unwed mothers from accessing cash aid, with the intent of preventing access to support for Black mothers. In 1951, Governor Talmadge signed a law that would deny grants to “more than one illegitimate child of a mother.” Fortunately, the federal government pushed back on this policy.

Historical and present-day policies in Georgia have punished Black women and single mothers by restricting cash assistance based on family structure or a family’s reproductive decisions. As a result, Black women are paid just 63 cents for every dollar paid to men for doing the same work. Today, racism and bias in employment and hiring, occupational segregation, and other structural barriers persist to limit economic advancement for Black women. Historically, as access to economic opportunities like property ownership, bank accounts, and higher education were afforded to white women, it took decades for those same rights to reach Black women. One in five Black working-age women in Georgia live in poverty. While some may point to the establishment of fetal “personhood” in HB 481 as an economic benefit now that pregnant people can list a fetus as a dependent on state taxes and file for child support, these tax breaks will have little measurable impact for families in comparison to the damage forced pregnancy may cause to people’s lives and economic prospects. Georgia’s ban will likely lead to more violence and death. Outside of pregnancy-related causes like hemorrhage or infection, homicide is the 3rd leading cause of pregnancy-associated death among women during and after pregnancy in Georgia. Black women in Georgia are three times more likely to die from complications of pregnancy and childbirth, and Georgia has one of the highest rates of maternal mortality in this country. Georgia is home to more than 2.5 million women of childbearing age, a significant portion of whom (879,200) are Black women. Banning abortion perpetuates violence, impinges self-determination and economic opportunities for women and childbearing people, and worsens outcomes for Black women and children. Most abortions are now illegal in Georgia after six weeks. Circuit Court of Appeals decided Georgia’s law, House Bill 481, is allowable. On the heels of the Supreme Court’s ruling to overturn Roe v. In 2019, Georgia lawmakers passed an anti-abortion law that was ruled unconstitutional. Deriving from the painful origins of slavery, where Black women were forced into pregnancy and childbirth by their enslavers, we find ourselves in an eerily familiar landscape where women are denied the autonomy to choose whether or when to birth babies. Georgia’s history is fraught with violence against Black women. GBPI’s Commitment to Equity and Inclusion.

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