Wisconsin Senate Approves Legislation That Would Expand Child Tax Breaks to Include Fetuses

Thursday, November 9th, 2023 -- 12:01 PM

(By Sarah Lehr, Wisconsin Public Radio) Wisconsin's Republican-led Senate has approved legislation that would expand child tax breaks to include fetuses.

According to Sarah Lehr with Wisconsin Public Radio, the bill, which now heads to Wisconsin's Republican controlled-Assembly, would increase the state's individual income tax exemption for a dependent from $700 to $1,000.

And it would allow someone to claim a fetus as a dependent once a fetal heartbeat is detected. That exemption would not apply to pregnancies that end in abortion.  Republican backers say their goal is helping families offset the costs of having children, starting during pregnancy.

"Recognizing a child in the womb as a viable person demonstrates our support of all children, born and unborn," state Rep. Karen Hurd, R-Fall Creek, said during a public hearing this fall.

But Democrats said the proposal would do little to help Wisconsin families. Instead, they accused Republicans of furthering an "anti-choice agenda" despite widespread support for abortion rights among Wisconsinites.

"It is part of a national strategy to chip away at abortion rights and ultimately establish legal personhood for embryos and fetuses so that embryos and fetuses have rights under the law and, of course, the pregnant woman has fewer," Sen. Kelda Roys, D-Madison, said on the Senate floor on Tuesday.

Under a state law that recently went into effect in Georgia, a parent can now claim a fetus with a detectable heartbeat as a dependent for tax purposes. In at least half a dozen other states, lawmakers have introduced state tax bills that would allow fetuses to be claimed as dependents, according to a review by Tax Policy Center.

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