On Thursday, an hours long debate over a familiar issue took place in the House and unity over one particular bill for families.

A busy day in the House as members took up nine bills.

House Bill 428 was a much-anticipated bill that would give Georgians the right to access IVF treatment.

For the bill's sponsor, the issue was personal.

"A growing concern became apparent, that we were having — there was issues, so we started to try IVF, and we did that multiple times," Rep. Lehman Franklin (R-Statesboro) said, referring to his and his wife's fertility journey. "We did the hormone therapy that came with it. We even actually — we tried adoption at one point, and we came along all the way down to the end of that to the last two weeks of adopting and had the attorney to contact all that stuff that goes with it — the process that went with it—and that fell apart two weeks before we were able to be able to adopt.

"So, you can say that this experience for us has been a very emotional one. It's been the highs and lows. It's been a very emotional experience throughout this time. But I'm here to tell you today that we did it — we did IVF for another time, and it worked, and now my wife is pregnant with a little girl, and we're ecstatic about it."

Franklin's wife joined him in the chamber to support the bill, which passed unanimously.

The House also voted on its version of a controversial bill that would ban transgender girls from girls’ sports and require changing rooms and bathrooms to be separated by sex assigned at birth.

Supporters of the bill said it ensures fairness.

"House Bill 267 is a commonsense bill that recognizes the biological differences between male and female," Rep. Josh Bonner (R-Fayetteville) said. "Men generally have higher cardiovascular capacity and greater bone density and more muscle mass. These advantages are undeniable. Allowing biological males to compete against biological females creates significant harm and undermines the intent and success of Title IX."

"There is genetic differences between boys and girls, and that's inalienable and it is not changeable," Rep. Brad Thomas (R-Holly Springs) said. "You cannot change it. No chemical nor no hormone. No surgery is ever going to change your genetic makeup ever.

"There's been a lot of people that talked about that. I'm not going to go into detail about it, but I also talk about progressive left and this conversation we always have about safe spaces. My daughter deserves a safe space. She deserves it."

But Democrats oppose the bill and said female athletes face other pressing issues like sexual harassment.

"Men telling girls and women that you all have helpfully diagnosed the problem for us, and now you're going to swoop in and fix it," Rep. Anne Allen Westbrook (D-Savannah) said. "With all due respect, girls and women, women don't need men speaking for us. We do that for ourselves. Which brings me to this bill, which again, has nothing to do with the issues standing in the way of fairness for us in sports. If it did, it would address real issues, not made-up ones."

"Yes, these are children — I said children — who are the subject of this legislation," Minority Leader Rep. Carolyn Hugley said. "The objective being a law that would question their humanity, segregate them from their classmates, and make them the object of ridicule at the direction of the state."

The bill passed 102 to 54, in a party line vote after heated debate.

The Senate voted Thursday on the second portion of Gov. Brian Kemp's tort reform bills when Senate Bill 69 was presented on the floor.

The bill would put safeguards around the use of third-party litigation funding, or TPLF.

TPLF companies commonly bankroll plaintiffs to take their case to civil court in exchange for a portion — sometimes a large portion — of any award that may result.

"This is a consumer protection measure, and it also combats the growing foreign influence in our own judiciary," President Pro Tempore Sen. John F. Kennedy said. "This bill in no way is aimed at removing the ability of plaintiffs to engage in this type of litigation financing. It is purely ensuring that when plaintiffs, many of which are victims of wrongdoing, are not taken advantage of by bad actors who attempt to exploit the tragedy of others."

The bill would also prevent foreign actors who he said are increasingly behind many of the TPLF businesses from operating in Georgia.

"One of the things that has brought this to our attention and has made this to be something of a very critical nature, is that it has been exposed that many of the third-party litigation financiers are foreign adversaries to this country: communist China, Russia and others," Kennedy said. "And you may think, other than the incredible returns that some of these investment investments produce, 'Why would they be getting involved?' And the reason is it gives them a foothold into our civil justice system that could give them access to information that they otherwise wouldn't be able to have.

"Think data. Think technology. Think things like that."

Unlike SB 68, last week's more contentious tort reform bill which was passed along party lines, SB 69 passed unanimously.

Another Kemp-supported bill was also brought to the Senate today, but this time it was supported by Georgia first lady Marty Kemp.

SB 42 would change the law surrounding the human trafficking of minors, which can overlap with the offense of keeping a place of prostitution.

This overlapping sometimes allows traffickers to receive more lenient sentences because of loopholes in the law.

"At least two courts in Georgia have indicated that the conduct prohibited by Georgia's human trafficking statute is substantially similar to the conduct prohibited by the offense of keeping a place of prostitution, pimping, and pandering in regard to minor victims," Sen. Bo Hatchett (R-Cornelia) said. "This bill should clear that up."

The bill passed unanimously as well.

GPB's Lawmakers returns for Day 26 on Monday, March 3 at 7 p.m. Watch the previous week of Lawmakers here.

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