Columbus, Ohio (World Cup) – An Ohio lawmaker has proposed a bill that would allow parents to claim their “conceived child” as a dependent on their state income taxes.
Rep. Gary Click (R-Vickery) recently introduced House Bill 654, or the Strategic Parenting Tax Option (STORK) bill. The bill would allow Ohioans to include an unborn child conceived during a tax year as a dependent. If the taxpayer and their spouse file separately, only the pregnant woman may claim the unborn child. The bill would apply to tax years ending after January 1, 2025.
Click said allowing taxpayers to claim child support starting from the year of conception, rather than the year of birth, would ease the financial burden on families as they prepare for birth and the arrival of a new baby.
“It takes a lot of money to prepare,” Click says, “and the minute you find out you’re having a baby, you start spending money, and then you don’t have the chance to adopt the child.”
Click pointed to statistics from the Peterson Kaiser Family Foundation that reported the average cost of childbirth in the U.S., including pregnancy, delivery and postpartum care, was $18,865 in 2022, with the average out-of-pocket cost of $2,854 for those with health insurance.
The congressman said he got the idea for the bill when he introduced the Personhood Act in July 2022. The bill would have added a statement to the Ohio Revised Code stating that an individual’s personhood is declared from the moment of conception. The Personhood Act did not pass.
“Someone in the middle of the conversation said something really cheeky and said, ‘So, can I deduct it from my taxes?'” Click said. “And I was like, ‘Yeah, that certainly makes sense.'”
Critics say House Bill 654 is an attempt to classify embryos and fetuses as people and weaken abortion rights in the state, but Click argues it’s not an attempt to grant legal personhood to embryos and fetuses.
“A state-level tax bill is not going to override the constitutional amendment,” Click said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re pro-life or pro-choice. Either way, there’s a baby on both sides, and I think it makes sense to recognize that parents are contributing to the costs of a baby even before the baby is born.”
Click said he doesn’t expect the bill to pass this year because the legislative session ends in December, and if it doesn’t, he said he will reintroduce it.
“I wanted to start a dialogue, and I’ve gotten some good questions and some good feedback along the way,” Click said. “If people who don’t like this bill have constructive advice to offer that will bring unity to this issue, if there’s anything we can do to make this a bipartisan discussion, I’m happy to listen. I think it should be a bipartisan discussion because Republicans and Democrats are all having babies. We all pay taxes. We all believe these kids need help.”
The bill currently has seven Republican co-sponsors and is awaiting its first committee hearing.
