Legislation ensuring a woman’s right to in vitro fertilization in Georgia and a measure authorizing a memorial to the state’s first Black lawmakers topped the list of bills signed into law by Gov. Brian Kemp at a ceremony Thursday in Savannah.
The ceremony, held at the Savannah Convention Center and attended by local lawmakers and business leaders, capped two days of official business in Savannah for Georgia’s Republican governor. On Wednesday, he led a ribbon-cutting ceremony marking the formal opening of the expanded and refurbished convention center, a project into which the state has plunged at least $276 million.
The legislation protecting in vitro fertilization was authored by Rep. Lehman Franklin whose wife, Lorie, conceived a child using IVF after attempts to adopt a child and multiple IVF rounds failed. He introduced the measure after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled in 2024 that frozen embryos could be considered children under state law.
On Thursday, Lorie Franklin, who is due to give birth to the couple’s first child, a girl, later this month, stood alongside her husband and behind Kemp as he signed the bill into law.
IVF is “a modern miracle for many families who yearn for the blessing of a child,” Kemp said. “As a state we’re working to make it easier for families to grow, and that’s what this legislation does.”
For state Rep. Carl Gilliard, Thursday’s signing ceremony culminated years of toil to win legislative approval for construction of a monument on the grounds of the state capitol dedicated to the 33 Black lawmakers elected to the state legislature in 1868.
The “Original 33” were subsequently expelled from the assembly by white lawmakers. At least 14 were lynched.
Kemp acknowledged the Savannah Democrat’s effort to win approval of the “Original 33” bill, which the longtime lawmaker has called “a powerful signal that Georgia remembers and recognizes the contributions of these 33 courageous Americans.”
“I know this is something that Carl worked very hard on. He’s also very proud of this accomplishment, and we’re proud to celebrate that with you,” Kemp said to the beaming Gilliard.
Commissions, authorities
In all, Kemp signed 29 bills into law on Thursday, 10 of them related to health care. Among the rest were laws authorizing the creation of the Savannah Music Commission, a Savannah-Chatham County Authority for the Homeless, a Brunswick and Glynn County Development Authority, and the Tybee Island Building and Public Facilities Authority, as well as a measure authorizing salary increases for the Glynn County Board of Commissioners.
Not all the measures that Kemp also signed into law were weighty or bureaucratic.
A bill designating cornbread the official state bread and Brunswick stew the official state stew — as well as designating the fourth Friday in November “National Sugarcane Syrup Day” — is now state law regardless, Kemp said, of the ongoing dispute who, exactly, created Brunswick stew. “I know there may be disagreements between myself and other governors in the region,” Kemp said, in an apparent reference to Brunswick, North Carolina. “But we know where the roots of Brunswick stew came from. There are some people in other states that just don’t understand that.”
Notably absent from Kemp’s remarks at the ceremony was any acknowledgement of the economic uncertainty facing the state as the Trump administration slashes the federal workforce and programs while undertaking a trade war that has clouded the near-term financial futures of the ports of Savannah and Brunswick and his showcase development project — the Hyundai electric-vehicle plant in Bryan County.
He repeated what has become his political mantra that Georgia “is the best place in the country, in my opinion, to live, work and raise a family” and touted the more than 160 economic development projects, 28,000 new jobs, and $14.5 billion in investment that his administration has brought to the region.
Kemp has already put his signature to his lawsuit reform initiative and earlier this week, he approved a set of workforce development bills and legislation barring biological males from participating on women’s sports teams.
He has until midnight on May 14 to veto or sign the 378 bills and resolutions passed by the legislature earlier this year. Any measure he does not sign or veto automatically becomes law.
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