The Kentucky Senate overwhelmingly passed a bill allowing mothers of unborn children to receive child support, further establishing a conservative, anti-abortion movement to institute fledgling rights for fetuses.
Senate Bill 110 drew broad support from both sides of the aisle and easily crossed the Republican-majority state Senate chamber with a 36-2 vote. It’s expected to pass in the House, where Republicans also hold a supermajority.
The measure would allow a parent to seek child support up to a year after giving birth to cover any expenses incurred during pregnancy, The Associated Press reports.
Republican state Sen. Whitney Westerfield, a fierce opponent of abortion rights, introduced the bill.
“I believe that life begins at conception,” Westerfield said. “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.”
If the measure becomes law, parents can collect child support funds from the state only up to a year after a child’s birth. The bill originally allowed parents to apply for child support at any time after their children are born, but legislators amended the bill to set a time limit.
“So if there’s not a child support order until the child’s 8, this isn’t going to apply,” Westerfield explained when the bill was being reviewed by a Senate committee. “Even at a year and a day, this doesn’t apply. It’s only for orders that are in place within a year of the child’s birth.”
Abortion rights proponents in Kentucky are keeping a watchful eye on the legislation as it moves to the House to look out for any revisions that might establish “personhood” for fetuses.
Similar laws have been enacted in other states. Georgia has already allowed parents to collect child support for their fetuses. Another Georgia law allows parents to claim income tax deductions for dependent children before birth. Utah also established a pregnancy tax break. Measures that resemble these laws are in the works in other states, too.
This bill’s passing comes on the heels of a ruling from the Alabama Supreme Court that decreed that frozen embryos are legally protected “extrauterine children” as the campaign to offer constitutional protections to embryos and fetuses continues. Since that decision, several of Alabama’s in vitro fertilization (IVF) clinics have paused or suspended their services. The ruling has also raised questions about the future of reproductive technology.
