14-05-2025
Michigan lawmakers hear out fetal income tax exemption
Rep. Gina Johnsen (R-Odessa Township) speaks at a House Education Committee meeting at Sterling Heights High School on March 11, 2024. (Photo: Anna Liz Nichols)
Michigan lawmakers discussed the mechanics of a tax exemption that would put fetuses on par with children when claiming dependents on taxes.
House Bill 4202 would allow individuals who have a physician's verification that they are at least 10 weeks pregnant by the end of the tax year to claim their fetus as a dependent.
It's a straightforward 'pro-family' bill, the bill's sponsor Rep. Gina Johnsen (R-Lake Orion) told members of the state House Finance committee Tuesday. Johnsen said the bill would work to recognize the financial responsibilities that residents endure during pregnancy and promote growth in the state economy as families are incentivized to grow.
'This bill does not create a new entitlement. It does not expand government bureaucracy, and it does not affect Michigan's legal definitions related to personhood or abortion. It simply applies the same logic and fairness we already use for children born or lost late in the year to a pregnancy that is ongoing under medical care,' Johnsen said. 'This is a modest but meaningful bill that gives expecting mothers an added measure of support without creating a new program or imposing additional burdens on the state.'
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Though bills to offer tax relief during pregnancy can sound like a positive thing for residents, it's a common undercover tactic for state-level attempts to establish 'fetal personhood' in order to chip away at abortion rights, Planned Parenthood Action Fund said in a memo at the start of last year. Other 'fetal personhood' bills can look like efforts to allow pregnant people to pursue child support after conception and separate criminal and civil penalties for death of fetuses, placing the same level of personhood on fetuses as children.
'Legislative tactics and messaging of the fetal personhood movement may change, but the goal is the same — to control people's bodies, limit their health care choices, and criminalize people for having abortions,' Planned Parenthood Action Fund's memo says. 'These laws are not about supporting pregnant people…Instead, they are purposefully sowing confusion and slowly chipping away at people's rights to make reproductive health decisions.'
Rep. Sarah Lightner (R-Springport) inquired if there was room to adjust the minimum weeks required under the exemption noting that under the bill's rules a person could claim the tax exemption at the end of the year and promptly terminate the pregnancy in the 11th week of pregnancy or beyond. Johnsen noted that the 10 week minimum was already a compromise.
About 93% of all abortions in the U.S. are initiated within the first trimester, or 13 weeks of pregnancy, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Rep. Kelly Breen (D-Novi) said she had some reservations on the bill but would be interested in seeing it tie-barred to only pass if the 'Momnibus' package, addressing disproportionate maternal mortality for moms of color, also passes the Legislature. Breen proposed an amendment to tie-bar the bills, though it was voted down by Republican committee members.
'Thank you to the sponsor for recognizing the need for additional supports for pregnant women and working moms…There's a lot of good that could come from the 'Momnibus' package, and that's why I've asked for this amendment to tie bar your bill to it,' Breen said before the vote on her amendment.
