ATLANTA – Women who are finding it difficult to get pregnant are one step closer to guaranteed access in Georgia to a medical procedure that assists with conception after the state Senate overwhelmingly approved the legality of it Thursday.

House Bill 428 was prompted by an Alabama Supreme Court ruling last year that declared frozen embryos created through in vitro fertilization (IVF) should be treated as children. The decision essentially banned the procedure in that state until Alabama lawmakers passed a bill protecting IVF.

Georgia House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, has made codifying IVF protections into Georgia law a priority for this year’s General Assembly session.

The Senate voted 53-1 to pass HB 428, but the measure must return to the House for final adoption due to Senate amendments.

The bill defines the IVF procedure and explicitly says that nothing in Georgia law should be construed to prohibit or prevent people from access.

“It serves a great purpose,” said Sen. Ben Watson, R-Savannah, who noted that the bill’s chief sponsor, Rep. Lehman Franklin, R-Statesboro, tried for 14 years with his wife to have a child. They finally succeeded through IVF and are expecting the baby’s arrival by June.

Sen. Josh McLaurin, D-Sandy Springs, said the Senate amendments strengthened the bill.

“I think it does what it’s intended to accomplish and it’s going to protect people like me and families like mine,” said McLaurin, who said he himself was “donor conceived” in the late 1980s.