CV NEWS FEED // Republican lawmakers in the House introduced groundbreaking pro-family legislation this week in what framers are calling “the policy course for a culture of life in America.”
Congresswoman Ashley Hinson, R-IA, introduced the Providing for Life Act (PLA) in the House, a pro-family and pro-life bill that would expand child tax credits. The PLA is the House counterpart to a bill introduced in the Senate by Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) in 2022.
Ethics and Public Policy Center fellow Patrick T. Brown wrote of the 2022 sister legislation:
The Providing for Life Act would earmark money for community-based mentoring programs for new moms, and ensure pregnancy resource centers’ eligibility for federal funds aimed at supporting women. These types of approaches would help build more opportunities for support around pregnant women, and do so by not crowding out the work of non-profit agencies, but amplifying and catalyzing it.
According to a Monday press release from Rep. Hinson, the Providing for Life Act aims to provide tax breaks to working families by expanding the refundable Child Tax Credit to up to $3,500 per child under the age of 18 and $4,500 per child under the age of 6.
Currently, parents may claim up to $2,000 in tax credit per dependent child.
The bill retroactively expands tax credits to unborn children and allows parents to claim the tax credit in the prior year during the pregnancy. Parents would also be eligible for the regular child credit during the current year.
The legislation would also improve paid parental leave, expand Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program eligibility for postpartum women, and enact child support reform.
Empowering women is a key focus of the bill, which aims to ensure that pregnant women on college campuses know their rights and have access to non-abortion resources so they can continue their education and their pregnancy.
The Act would also funnel Title X funding to pregnancy resource centers and “expand protections for faith-based organizations that provide federally funded social services.”
>>>Read the full text of the bill here<<<
Under Hinson’s bill, parents would have to be employed to receive the credit. This requirement differentiates the measure from Democrat-led efforts during the COVID pandemic to expand child tax credit without work requirements.
“By expanding the Child Tax Credit to include the unborn and provide additional relief to working families, empowering women to care for their babies and families regardless of socioeconomic status or zip code, and expanding access to community resources, we can protect the most vulnerable, make a meaningful difference for those in need, and strengthen all families,” Rep. Hinson said.
