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.
One more gentle nudge towards only stupid people reproducing.
But that’s probably the conservative goal. Playing the long game, expanding their base.
Yup. That’s why they ban books and cut funding for public education. They want uneducated people to keep voting for Republican candidates who put their own kids into private schools, and the cycle continues.
Exactly. The goal in red states is to cultivate a large population of angry and unintelligent people by essentially forcing the impoverished to have kids and sending them through dismantled education systems. They are creating a feeder system for the military and for Republican votes. That’s just my conspiracy theory.
‘Only stupid people reproducing’ rhetoric unfortunately is veeeery close to eugenics talking points
Not at all. Everyone should be entitled to a safe, healthy life no matter their traits or attributes. Restricting people’s reproductive choices is insidious and people can’t be trusted to do it properly, even if there was a ‘fair’ way to do it. It doesn’t stop conservatives from constantly doing just that, though.
What I am getting at is, the more stupid laws that get passed to ‘punish’ people for having sex, the more people on the end of the spectrum that have good critical thinking skills will choose to delay or avoid having kids in that place that’s making the stupid laws. It’s strictly about incentivizing behavior through policy.
That’s all true and fair. And I’m certain that’s part of the plan of Republicans. That doesn’t mean we have to also think the way they do about it. It creates a narrative of reproduction of certain people being less desirable as that of others. While that doesn’t restrict those people’s reproductive rights per se, it creates an ethical conundrum about who should and shouldn’t reproduce. Again, I’m sure rightists believe those things, but aren’t we above that? It also reinforces the narrative that things like rational thinking skills are genetic rather than the result of education or lack thereof, which is a wholly separate issue that also has to be solved. Can’t we focus the discussion on this, simultaneously making sure more people realize what we perceive as intelligence is mainly an issue of education and not much of genetics?
I don’t think there are many people here who think the solution is for stupid people to stop reproducing, rather that our education system stop producing so many stupid people.
I think this is the wrong way to frame it. Really, it will come down to people with a strong enough upbringing to understand their choices. A lot of people have children because they didn’t have good guidance from adult figures in their lives, it’s not because they’re stupid. A lot of those folks are just poor.
The original version would have allowed a child support action at any time following conception, but the measure was amended to have such an action apply only retroactively after the birth within the time limit.
Weird, it’s almost like there’s a huge difference between a fertilized egg and a baby.
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?
Any young buck reading this: If you have insurance, they’ll usually cover vascectomy with a minimal co-pay. Do it. Contact your doctor, your insurance company, figure it out and do it. Yeah, it’s a little weird having someone shave your junk, and you’re achy for a few days after, but think about it. A lifetime of less stress and more money. Just do it. You’ll thank me in your dotage.
Yes, and gunshots to head only kill 92% of the time.
Pregnancy is only possible 50% of the time after reversible
So I ask, are ya feeling lucky… (Punk?)
Imagine the gall to look around at this world and be so blinded by, I don’t know, narcissism, self-centeredness, hubris and think,“Yeah, what we need here is another fucking human.”
Strongly disagree. Your position is that the current age-bearing demographic forego the experience of having children?
I don’t think this is sarcasm but maybe I’m eating the onion?
Wow, I can u derstand some people might not want kids, but self-centeredness? It’s self- e entered to devote so much of your ti e and attention to someone else’s needs, for two decades of your life?
The world is better now than at any point previously in history (except maybe the 90s). The only reason things sound worse is that we have global news now.
What point is there in trying to make a better future if none of us have kids? Who are we trying to fix climate change for, our geriatric asses?
Kids are emblematic of hope for a better future – that society can build and create something that we won’t benefit from, but our descendants will. I’d go as far as to say they should be the mascot of leftism and progressives. Everything we do should be to give them a better world than we had. It’s all moot otherwise.
They still have to shave it again at the doctor. My mom said she wished people wouldn’t pre-shave surgical sites (she’s a nurse, not just a weirdo offering to shave people for fun).
ETA: If your doctor tells you to shave before a procedure, do it. It’s probably just a good bet in general to always follow whatever pre-op instructions you get from your specific provider because every doctor is different.
Fuck my doctor. He didn’t mention prepping the area, so I didn’t shave, figured they’d take care of it. Nope. Didn’t shave, just cut then applied glue to my sack.
The glue on my hairy sack was the worst part of the whole experience, and it lasted for 2 weeks. I left feedback but it works have been a much better experience of they’d just told me to shave.
Mine told me not to. Had a decent looking nurse take care of it beforehand. It was an odd, but not terrible experience.
What about child tax credits for frozen embryos?
