Fathers in Utah MUST pay half of pregnancy costs under new law
A NEW law in Utah requires biological fathers to pay half of pregnancy-related costs, including out of pocket medical and hospital bills.
Sponsored by Republican state Representative Brady Brammer and signed by Governor Spencer Cox, the law is the first of it’s kind, acting as a supplement to child support services.
The bill was initially passed to alleviate some of the financial difficulties for pregnant women and potentially decrease abortion rates.
“It doesn’t change the dynamic that’s already there for child support, ” Rep. Brammer told The Sun.
“Instead, it’s about shared responsibly of the costs so the woman doesn’t have to claim that if she doesn’t want to.”
“The responsibility of parenthood doesn’t start at birth. It starts when you learn about the pregnancy for a woman, and it should bet the same for a man,” he said.
According to the bill, fathers don’t have to pay if paternity is still being disputed, the mother has an abortion, or, the woman was raped.
However, critics argue the new law could put women in abusive relationships in an even more dangerous position.
Domestic abuse tends to escalate during pregnancy and seeking these costs could further increase stressors about financially supporting a baby, Gabriella Archuleta, a public policy analyst with YWCA Utah, told NBC news.
In Utah, about one in four women have experienced sexual or physical abuse from intimate partners.
And statistics shows these numbers have increased in 2020, as a result of COVID-19 stressors.
Brammer doesn’t think it’s a problem. “The woman doesn’t have to claim the pregnancy cost if she doesn’t want to,” he said.
“She has control over that.”
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Mary Taylor, President of Pro Life Utah, called it the “missing piece of the puzzle” for abortion solutions. Taylor argued the number one reason women have abortions is due to financial burdens, and anything that helps women in an unanticipated pregnancy is a good thing.
However, she noted, it might not be a solution for women in abusive relationships.
We need to keep putting more and more protections in place so we encompass every women with protection and support in an unanticipated pregnancy, she said.