Two new Oklahoma bills would require fathers to financially support their children before birth.
According to CNHI, Republican state lawmakers introduced House Bill 1985 and Senate Bill 656 this month to add to the support and protections that the law already grants to unborn babies in Oklahoma. It is one of 14 states that protects unborn babies by banning abortions now that Roe v. Wade is gone.
Pro-life state Rep. Cody Maynard, R-Durant, is the lead sponsor of House Bill 1985, which would require the father or “second parent” of an unborn child to cover half of the mother’s medical expenses for prenatal care or the amount that they would owe in child support for their child after birth. Those who fail to do so could face up to six months in prison.
The Senate bill, sponsored by state Sen. David Bullard, R-Durant, is very similar.
Maynard said he wants to make sure mothers and babies are being supported.
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“As long as I can remember, the burden of taking care of the child in the womb has always fallen on the mother exclusively,” he told CNHI. “So if the father doesn’t choose to help pay, then that burden has been on the mom. It takes two to create a child. It should take two to help raise a child ideally, but I really want to just make a scenario where the burden wouldn’t be solely on a mom by herself.”
Pro-life lawmakers in other states have passed a number of measures in recent years to provide support to pregnant and new mothers, including requiring fathers to begin paying child support before their baby is born.
In 2019, when Georgia passed its heartbeat law, lawmakers included measures to allow parents to claim unborn babies as dependents on their taxes and allow mothers to collect child support for pregnancy and delivery costs from the father prior to the baby’s birth. Texas also increased funding for its Alternatives to Abortion and Healthy Texas Women programs, and Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves signed a law creating a new tax credit for people who donate to pregnancy resource centers that serve pregnant and parenting families.
Last year, U.S. Senate Republicans introduced a similar measure at the federal level, the Unborn Child Support Act, which requires child support for babies from the moment their lives begin. Another federal bill, the Providing for Life Act, sponsored by U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, would expand the child tax credit and make adoption more affordable. His bill also would create a national database to help connect mothers to maternal resources and provide parental leave.
Pregnancy resource centers and maternity homes also are expanding housing, financial, material and emotional support for families, and many pro-life Republican-led states are working to expand Medicaid for new mothers and babies.
