Kentucky lawmakers advance bill allowing child support to begin with pregnancy

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Lawmakers in Kentucky advanced a bill Tuesday that would grant the right to collect child support for unborn children, reflecting a broader effort in some Republican-led states to push legislation conferring a fetus with the same rights as a person.

The measure would allow a parent to seek child support up to a year after giving birth to cover pregnancy expenses. The bill won approval from the Senate Families and Children Committee, sending the proposal to the full Senate. It was the first vote on the legislation, which was introduced in mid-January and referred to the committee more than a month ago. Republicans have supermajorities in the Kentucky Senate and House.

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 its income tax deduction for dependent children before birth; Utah enacted a pregnancy tax break last year; and variations of those measures are before lawmakers in at least four other states.

A recent Alabama Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos are legally protected children spotlighted the anti-abortion movement’s long-standing goal of giving embryos and fetuses legal and constitutional protections on par with those of the people carrying them.