Following the Supreme Court’s reversal of the landmark case Roe v. Wade, Republican Senators Marco Rubio and Kevin Cramer proposed a bill requiring child support payments beginning at conception.
The legislation, called the Unborn Child Support Act, aims to provide financial support to pregnant women. It would amend the Social Security Act “to ensure that child support for unborn children is collected and distributed under the child support enforcement program.”
“We should do everything we can to support American mothers and their children. This bill would allow expecting mothers to prepare and support their babies before they are born,” Senator Rubio said.
The bill would allow mothers to request child support payments beginning with the month of conception. If paternity is established after the baby is born, the child’s mother could request retroactive funds.
“Caring for the well-being of our children begins long before a baby is born,” Cramer said. “It begins at the first moment of life – conception – and fathers have obligations, financial and otherwise, during pregnancy.”
The bill is one of several Republicans have introduced aimed at providing support to mothers in the wake of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling.
The bill is being sponsored by eight other Republican senators, including Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), and James Lankford (R-Okla.).
Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La) introduced legislation in the House to coincide with the Unborn Child Support Act.
