In the two weeks since House Bill 1013 was approved by that chamber, the overwhelming support heard in committee meetings and on the House floor has given way to a growing chorus of opponents who believe the legislation will allow pedophiles to avoid prison and deny Georgians their right to bear arms.

“There’s only recently been this kind of mass attack on the bill that comes from a very small internet activation,” said the bill’s co-sponsor, state Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver, a Decatur Democrat.

The bill is one of few that House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, has put his name on, making it a top priority. He’s called the need to increase access to mental health care a “defining issue.” If he’s concerned the bill won’t make it over the finish line by April 4, the last day of the legislative session, he isn’t showing it.

“I don’t see a lot of impact that this opposition is having,” Ralston said in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I think there are some people that have legitimate concerns — well-intentioned, good-faith objections. Then there are the others for whom their concerns are fact-free, they are outrageous, they are ridiculous.

“I think members of both the House and the Senate are sorting through that. And so that’s why I’m still optimistic. I’m very optimistic about the bill. We’re going to get this bill passed,” Ralston said.

HB 1013 would enforce a federal “parity” law by requiring insurance companies to cover mental health care the same way they cover physical health, establish state grants for outpatient treatment, loosen the guidance on when law enforcement can involuntarily commit someone in need of help and take other steps to improve care.

Georgia ranks low nationally on most measurements of mental health treatment and high in the percentage of residents who face challenges, according to a 2021 report by Mental Health America, a century-old nonprofit advocacy group. It put Georgia last for the number of mental health professionals per capita. The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry says Georgia has only eight psychiatrists per 100,000 children; the academy suggests a better ratio is 47 per 100,000.

During a Senate Health and Human Services Committee hearing last week, Rhonda Thomas, president of Truth in Education — a nonprofit that has opposed COVID-19 pandemic mask mandates and what it calls obscene materials in schools — urged senators to oppose the bill.

“If I was to say today, I would say I’m totally against the entire bill and I hope it dies in the Senate,” Thomas said. She said the legislation would take control of children’s mental health away from parents.

State Sen. Dean Burke, a Bainbridge Republican leading a subcommittee on HB 1013, tried to keep speakers focused during hearings this week.

“Please share with us specific issues that you have with the bill, not just something that you read from the internet during the weekend,” Burke said.

The Senate panel doing a deep dive on HB 1013 was unprepared Monday for the attention the bill is starting to draw.

Senate staffers had to move the meeting to a bigger room, and there still wasn’t enough space for all the opponents, who had been rallied by groups such as Truth in Education and the anti-abortion group Georgia Right to Life.

Capitol police had to be called to the overflowing room to try to get control of the crowd, with some attendees getting into shouting matches with legislative staff, laughing at comments made by presenters they disagreed with and bursting into applause at remarks made by their side.

Thomas’ positions were echoed by several speakers throughout the past week-and-a-half of testimony, and lawmakers have received more than 1,000 emails opposing the bill, though many have been copied and pasted from a script.

“I’m a supporter of the Second Amendment,” Grant Meadows said during a hearing this week. “In other states we’ve seen mental health laws turn into red flag laws. And it can be done arbitrarily.”

Typically, “red flag” laws would allow a judge to deem that someone is a threat and unable to have guns.

Opponents online wrote that the law would make pedophilia a “mental disorder” and absolve criminals from punishment.

“Why did all but 3 GOP House members vote for HB 1033 (sic) AKA Pedophile Protection Act?” GOP activist Debbie Dooley said on Twitter last week.

Jeanne Seaver, a Republican activist running for lieutenant governor this year, joined in Thursday, thanking a group of House members who oppose the mental health measure.

“While Georgians need and deserve better mental health services, this 77-page atrocity dramatically increases consumer prices, grows government, centralizes mental health care, and invites the ‘woke’ World Health Organization into the lives of Georgians in need of mental health services,” she said in a statement.

Ralston said those characterizations of what the bill would do are untrue.

“People are pulling things out, misinterpreting, misinforming (people) about them and misleading people in doing so,” Ralston said.

It’s unclear where the sudden opposition stems from, many of the bill’s supporters said. Some point to a House floor speech given by outgoing state Rep. Philip Singleton, a Sharpsburg Republican who has frequently found himself opposing Ralston.

Singleton is one of a handful of state representatives who was drawn out of his district during last year’s redistricting session. Once a decade after the U.S. census, the General Assembly is tasked with redrawing legislative and congressional district lines to evenly allocate the state’s population.

“I can only have a couple of weeks left,” Singleton said. “So when there’s something that I think is this bad, I have to stand up and speak about it.”

And while Singleton’s largest issue with the bill — mandating parity — isn’t driving the discussion, footage of his floor speech is being circulated among opponents of the legislation.

“The backlash is largely expected because the legislation so clearly stands in opposition to the principles of the Republican Party,” he said, citing a party position for small government. “And so Republicans across the state are fighting back against their representatives who they feel have abandoned the principles that they support.”

Senate leaders say they have issues with the bill, but they remain optimistic that significant mental health legislation will pass this year.

One concern has been the cost to the state. House officials have said funding the bill would cost about $29.7 million per year, but senators are still waiting on legislative staff to finalize a detailed accounting. Both chambers have pushed to increase mental health spending in the upcoming year’s budget.

Senate Majority Leader Mike Dugan, a Carrollton Republican, said addressing Georgia’s poor ranking in mental health access is something that all lawmakers are committed to doing.

“Our responsibility is to do our due diligence on the bill to make sure that it meets the intent, but is as clean and responsible as we can possibly make it for the state,” Dugan said.

While a vote has not yet been scheduled, the Senate Health and Human Services Committee will hold its next meeting early next week. Senate panels have to approve bills before the day’s session begins Wednesday to still be considered this year, according to chamber rules.

What’s next

House Bill 1013, which aims to expand access to mental health services in Georgia, remains in the state Senate Health and Human Services Committee.

If it’s to pass this year, the committee must approve it before the Senate floor session begins Wednesday.

A full Senate vote would then follow, and then both chambers of the General Assembly would have to work out any differences by the final of the legislative session, April 4.