Measure allows parent to seek child support up to a year after giving birth to retroactively cover pregnancy expenses
The Republican-led Kentucky senate voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to grant the right to collect child support for fetuses, advancing a bill that garnered bipartisan support despite nationwide fallout from a controversial Alabama decision also advancing “fetal personhood”.
The measure would allow a parent to seek child support up to a year after giving birth to retroactively cover pregnancy expenses. The legislation – Senate Bill 110 – won senate passage on a 36-2 vote with little discussion to advance to the House. Republicans have supermajorities in both chambers.
So this doesn’t seem quite so extreme. It allows child support retroactively for the pregnancy period. Being pregnant can be quite expensive, especially without insurance. So having parents share the cost makes sense. We’ll have to see how it pans out. Note it only can be utilized if child support is ordered within the first year after birth.
“I believe that life begins at conception,” Westerfield said while presenting the measure to his colleagues. “But even if you don’t, there’s no question that there are obligations and costs involved with having a child before that child is born.”
While I disagree with the premise, it’s a fairly mild take and I agree with the latter.
Kentucky is among at least six states where lawmakers have proposed measures similar to a Georgia law that allows child support to be sought back to conception. Georgia also allows prospective parents to claim an income tax deduction for dependent children before birth.
Well at least Georgia is being somewhat consistent. But if these people truly believe in conception being the start of personhood, miscarriages should also convey personhood and tax breaks.
Just to be devils advocate, while a law like this doesn’t seem bad, yay social programs, doesn’t it sort of set up more precedent that a child is a child at conception? In turn making it harder to argue for abortion rights based on other existing laws like this one.
I’d say it sets a precedent that a child isn’t a child until after birth. They don’t want to pay the bill without proof of purchase. Fuck these vermin.
They generally can’t determine paternity until after birth. That is why its a retroactive assessment.
It sounds like it doesn’t take effect until the child is born, so I dont think it itself respects that precedent. But it’s a red supermajority state so I’m sure they’ll find a way to oppress women with this, even if I do fundamentally agree with the idea that an absent father be on the hook for pregnancy expenses.
Make no mistake, this may seem reasonable on the surface, but it’s a Trojan horse that anti-choice extremists are hoping to leverage so they can get another case in front of our extremist supreme court to argue that fetuses should get full protection under the 14th amendment, resulting in a full nationwide abortion ban. NPR recently released an article about this: How states giving rights to fetuses could set up a national case on abortion
if these people truly believe in conception being the start of personhood, miscarriages should also convey personhood and tax breaks.
They should get paid bereavement leave
I’d actually agree if our family court system wasn’t so broken and sexist. But I’m also apart of the unpopular minority that believes that if women can opt out of having kids by having an abortion men should be able to opt out of paying child support.
Honestly none of this would really be an issue if healthcare was universal like it should be. It’s essentially treating a knife wound with a band-aid
If you could opt out if child support no one would pay. That’s a bad idea.
If you are a man, and don’t want to have a pregnancy, there is no way to “opt out”. Now I agree with you entirely, however I understand where he is coming from as well. As far as I know, the father does not have a say in whether or not a child is born, however you can easily argue that you probably shouldn’t put yourself in that situation if its such a worry.
You could say the same thing about abortions. If a father wants to be a father, they’ll be a father. If a father has no say in whether or not a woman can abort a baby, they should have a say in whether or not they want to raise it.
Sex carries risk and if you willingly ejaculate into a woman then you willingly risk being a father. Use birth control and don’t sleep with pro lifers. You can"t opt out after the fact because you’re not the pregnant one, it’s pretty simple and the men whining about would be better served by demanding better birth control for men than trying to punish women.
Use birth control and don’t sleep with pro lifers.
No birth control works 100% and women can change their minds about how they feel about abortions, especially when it’s their body.
you’re not the pregnant one, it’s pretty simple and the men whining about would be better served by demanding better birth control for men than trying to punish women.
What’s your saying is men should have absolutely no say about a child who carries half of their DNA. We have no say involving abortion, we have little to no say in child support, and we have little to no say with regards to custody. And let’s not pretend that their isn’t a subsection of women who actively use their kids to punish the father. You can’t scream about equality yet want to keep a inherently sexist system that gives the woman ALL the power when it comes to birth and child rearing. I’m pro choice but the idea that a woman gets to completely opt out of raising a child while a man simply has to bare whatever decision she makes with basically no say in it is bullshit.
It may be your body but it is both of your lives.
It always comes down to the details…… yeah, it doesn’t seem like a bad thing to help with medical expenses, BUT ….
Skipping a lot of reasons that should still be considered, but this is about money, specifically for healthcare. Healthcare is ridiculously expensive, but I have medical insurance to help cover it and that certainly made it easier to afford pregnancy costs.
However, coming back for money after the fact is a horrible implementation
- where’s the support when you need it most, during pregnancy?
- how can this possibly be covered by insurance?
Isn’t this approach worse for everyone?
