Capitol Recap: Abortions were down in Georgia in 2022 but up among Georgians

But overall, the number of Georgians receiving abortions ticked up from 34,988 in 2021 to 35,401 in 2022.

The number of abortions Georgians received outside the state jumped from 287 in 2021 to 4,604 in 2022.

That’s probably a low estimate.

The numbers are shared between states through a national agreement, but since it is not required, not all states participate — meaning the actual numbers are likely higher.

Florida is one of those states that doesn’t share information, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has reported that a number of Georgia residents traveled to Florida to get abortions.

Claire Bartlett, executive director of Georgia Life Alliance, said it was disappointing that the number of abortions didn’t change much despite the new law, which bans the procedure in most instances once a doctor can detect fetal cardiac activity, about six weeks into a pregnancy and before many know they are pregnant.

She said she was pleased, however, that the number of abortions happening in the state has fallen.

Georgia’s abortion rate also increased in 2022, to 10.4 abortions per 1,000 females between the ages of 10 and 55. The rate was 10.3 abortions per 1,000 females in 2021.

The rate, however, is still well below what it was in 1994, according to the earliest data available, when there were 13.7 abortions per 1,000 females.

Experts have said the decrease can mostly be attributed to increased access to various forms of birth control.

Georgia also saw an increase of about 3% in the number of births in 2022, with 126,001. It was the second consecutive year the total had risen after decreasing the previous five years.

Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC

Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC

Georgia Supreme Court removes appellate judge from the bench

The Georgia Supreme Court, in a unanimous ruling, removed an appellate judge from the bench who had been accused of ethical lapses, including taking advantage of an older client during his time as a lawyer.

The expulsion of Christian Coomer from the Court of Appeals follows a yearslong investigation by the state’s Judicial Qualifications Commission.

The watchdog agency launched its investigation after The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on allegations against Coomer in March 2020.

Following a hearing last year, a JQC panel found that Coomer, a former Republican state House majority whip, improperly mingled money from his campaign account with his law firm’s banking account. Four times in 2017, his campaign account transferred between $1,000 and $1,200 to his law firm account. Each time, the panel noted, the law firm’s account would have been overdrawn had the transfer not been made.

The panel also found Coomer improperly used campaign funds to supplement family vacations to Israel and Hawaii.

Coomer also admitted “blurring the lines” between attorney and friendship when he asked former client Jim Filhart for three loans totaling nearly $370,000. He said he repaid the money with interest, though most of it was returned after Filhart filed a lawsuit accusing Coomer of fraud and malpractice.

In a statement, Coomer acknowledged ”that my own errors in judgment resulted in the Supreme Court’s decision.”

Coomer agreed to a suspension with pay after the JQC lodged ethics charges against him in late December 2020. While on suspension, he received more than $460,000 in salary, although the bill to taxpayers was likely closer to $600,000 counting benefits. The state has also had to pay judges who sat in for Coomer during his suspension.

His case — and that of former Insurance Commissioner Jim Beck, convicted of federal charges and sentenced to seven years in prison — spurred the General Assembly to approve a constitutional amendment cutting pay to suspended state officials indicted on felony charges related to their office. The amendment overwhelmingly passed during the 2022 general election.

This was the second time the Supreme Court dealt with Coomer’s case.

In March, after the JQC hearing panel recommended Coomer’s removal from the bench, the high court ordered the panel to reconsider its opinion.

In May, the panel once again recommended Coomer’s removal. This time, the Supreme Court agreed.

Lawyers for Coomer had recommended a public reprimand instead of removal.

Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC

Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC

A Kemp-Greene rift opens, and it could have consequences in 2026

U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene took aim this past week at a fellow Republican, Gov. Brian Kemp, over the 2020 election, although it really could have been about one in 2026.

Kemp, responding to former President Donald Trump’s claim that he lost a “rigged” vote three years ago, said on social media that “the 2020 election in Georgia was not stolen.”

He went on to say in the post on X — formerly known as Twitter — that “for nearly three years now, anyone with evidence of fraud has failed to come forward — under oath — and prove anything in a court of law.”

“Our elections in Georgia are secure, accessible, and fair and will continue to be as long as I am governor,” added Kemp, who has often warned that Republicans must look to the future instead of reliving 2020 if they want to win the next presidential election. “The future of our country is at stake in 2024 and that must be our focus.”

As far as Greene was concerned, Kemp might as well have sided with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis after her investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia produced the past week’s indictment against the former president on 13 felony charges.

“His message should have been against this, not arguing with President Trump about the election and making it about his own ego and pride over Georgia’s election,” the Rome Republican said. “That’s a bad statement, and I was very upset over it.”

Greene then appeared to take Kemp’s advice to look to the future. What she saw was the possibility that Kemp could lose favor with the state’s GOP voters.

Kemp is often seen as a potential candidate in 2026 for the U.S. Senate seat held by Democrat Jon Ossoff. Greene dangled the possibility of challenging Kemp in that year’s GOP primary.

That could depend on Trump.

“I haven’t made up my mind whether I will do that or not,” she said. “I have a lot of things to think about. Am I going to be a part of President Trump’s Cabinet if he wins? Is it possible that I’ll be VP?”

Greene in the past has dismissed suggestions that she would join Trump on the GOP’s 2024 presidential ticket.

She’s not saying that now.

Serving as Trump’s running mate would be “an honor,” Greene said, and something she would consider “very, very heavily.”

Audit: Schools got money for gifted services but did not provide them

Some Georgia schools collected state funding for gifted services that they did not provide at a potential cost of millions of dollars to state taxpayers, an audit found.

Under Georgia’s education funding formula, schools receive a premium for each “gifted” student served by a teacher with special training. But a review by the Georgia Department of Audits & Accounts determined that during the 2020-21 fiscal year money helped fund 1 in 10 schools that did not qualify because the teacher lacked the required specialized training.

Schools may have been “overpaid” as much as $9.7 million for classes that lacked a teacher with the kind of training that qualifies, the review said.

Eligibility was not just a problem for teachers.

The review said school districts received extra money to provide gifted services to nearly 4,000 students who did not qualify.

In all, the review said, the schools may have received at least $13 million in error.

The Georgia Department of Education said in the review that it is working to improve its oversight, but it also objected to some of the auditors’ findings.

For example, it said the coronavirus pandemic had affected the information that auditors collected.

The auditors, however, said they collected data going back to 2017 and found a trend.

Auditors also found that there were too few gifted teachers to serve the number of students. More than 3 in 4 gifted classes exceeded the maximum 12 students per teacher, with the average ratio nearly double that limit.

While that falls short of what the law says, it’s not really a problem for the school districts because the General Assembly gave them the power a decade ago to waive requirements such as the maximum number of students in a class or a minimum number of school days.

Credit: Nathan Posner for the AJC

Credit: Nathan Posner for the AJC

Rep. Allen’s finances draw scrutiny after late disclosure of stock transactions

U.S. Rep. Rick Allen was months and even years behind in reporting millions of dollars in stock transactions before filing a disclosure earlier this month.

Raw Story first reported that Allen was tardy in disclosing his stock buys and sales, saying that on Aug. 10 the Augusta Republican belatedly submitted 136 transactions totaling between $3.05 million and $8.56 million. Members of Congress are only required to list financial holdings within broad ranges, making it impossible to pinpoint the exact value of Allen’s portfolio.

Federal financial disclosure rules require members of Congress to report sales or purchases within 45 days of any transactions.

Over the past three years, there were periodic transaction reports submitted for some of Allen’s transactions. However, the Aug. 10 document also corrects details about those previous reports in addition to disclosing many others belatedly.

The congressman’s office says stock trades and other financial transactions are made on his behalf by investment managers and without his direct input. A spokesman for Allen blamed the errors and omissions in his financial disclosures on a compliance firm that Allen has since parted ways with.

The spokesman said in a statement that Allen has “hired counsel and a new compliance firm to start working with the House Ethics Committee to ensure all trades have been properly reported.”

The Aug. 10 report was filed in consultation with the House Ethics Committee, the spokesman said. Members of Congress can face fines or other discipline for violating ethics rules, although that rarely happens.

Scrutiny of stock transactions intensified during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic when trades reported by then-U.S. Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, both Georgia Republicans, were among those that gained attention. Trades by U.S. Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and James Inhofe, R-Okla., also fell under the spotlight at that time.

The lawmakers were accused of making transactions after receiving private briefings for members of Congress but before the severity of COVID-19 was public knowledge. The STOCK Act, a law that went into effect in 2012, makes it illegal for members of Congress to use inside information for financial gain.

Perdue, Loeffler and the others denied any wrongdoing, and none were ever charged with violating federal laws or congressional ethics rules.

Democrat Jon Ossoff, however, made Perdue’s stock trades an issue when he challenged the Republican in 2020 and defeated him in a January 2021 runoff. Since then, Ossoff has filed legislation that would prohibit members of Congress and their spouses from trading in stocks and require them to put all assets into blind trusts.

Former Greene aide agrees to pay fine in settlement involving fake charity in Ohio

Isaiah Wartman, a former campaign manager for U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, will pay $25,000 as part of a settlement agreement after he was implicated in a charity scam involving a February train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.

Wartman and a colleague with WAMA Strategies, Luke Mahoney, will pay $22,000 to an Ohio food bank and $3,000 in investigative costs and fees as part of the settlement reached with the Ohio attorney general’s office, according to The Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Telling donors that they were raising money for an East Palestine-area food bank, Wartman and Mahoney helped raise funds for a fake charity named the Ohio Clean Water Fund that was co-founded by Michael Peppel.

The charity collected nearly $149,000 in donations but distributed $10,000.

Peppel has also agreed to pay fines in the settlement.

Bryan Kostura, a Cleveland attorney who represents WAMA, told Cleveland.com/The Plain Dealer that Wartman and Mahoney were victims of a fraud perpetrated by Peppel, but he would not say whether his clients are pursuing legal action against him. Kostura said WAMA assisted in the investigation by providing documents to the attorney general’s office.

Wartman told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he and Mahoney had no control over how the funds were spent by Peppel and the charity’s board.

Wartman was Greene’s campaign manager in 2020 when she was first elected to Congress. He was listed as a political consultant to the Rome Republican as recently as May.

Political expedience