11.25.2020

New Virginia Child Support Law Supports Unborn Children

 


 
This guest post is written by Sabrina Campbell, Regent Law 3L and current Wills, Trusts & Estates student:

In March of 2020, Virginia Senate Bill 428 was passed into law in Virginia. This new law provides that any child support proceeding that is initiated within six months of the birth of the child, the parents will have to share in any reasonable and necessary expenses related to the mother’s pregnancy and delivery of the child. Each parents’ portion of the expenses will be calculated in proportion to their gross income. This law became effective in July 2020, making both parents legally obligated to share in the costs of a child starting at pregnancy.

Business Insider has published a comprehensive state by state estimated cost of delivery of a baby. They report that in Virginia the average cost of having a vaginal delivery with insurance is roughly $6,517.02 and without insurance is an estimated $12,342.55. With Cesarian C-Sections the cost increases. Furthermore, this report only shows the cost of delivery and not the cost of pregnancy which adds a substantial financial burden as well. Also, these reports do not consider pregnancies and deliveries with complications, which can also drastically add to the cost of pregnancy and delivery.

Before this child support law was passed in Virginia, the mother was legally responsible for all costs associated with pregnancy and delivery with no legally enforceable support obligation from the father. Hopefully, expecting mothers (and fathers) will consider this new law in their decisions to keep their child or explore other options such as adoption. Ideally, if mothers know that they can legally require the father to share in pregnancy expenses, their financial burden may be lifted enough to deter them from adoption or other options for fear of not being able to financially provide for the child. Furthermore, this support obligation may provide an incentive to allow fathers to be more involved in the child’s life earlier and allow the child to have a relationship with both parents. Alternatively, even if the father choses or for some other reason is not present in the child’s life, taking some of the financial burden off of the mother can improve the quality of the child’s life.

Other states have recently tried passed similar legislation. For example, a Georgia law, commonly referred to as the “Heartbeat Bill” included a similar provision.  This highly controversial law made it illegal to receive an abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected, which is usually around six weeks. However, with Georgia declaring that life begins during pregnancy, a part of the Heartbeat Bill allows a mother to seek child support from the father for pregnancy and delivery expenses. Georgia went even farther and also allowed parents’ to claim the unborn child on their taxes as a deduction. The law has been challenged since it was first announced. Although it was anticipated to go into effect January 1, 2020, the law was temporarily blocked by a Federal Judge on the basis that it was unconstitutional. Recently, another Federal Judge struck the law down permanently. It will be interesting to see if Georgia will pass another law like Virginia, unrelated to abortion, but that provides for child support reimbursement for pregnancy and delivery expenses.  

These types of law are certainly important to the sanctity of human life, and may be important in fostering family restoration as well.

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