Georgia Anti-Abortion Law Adds “Unborn Dependents” to Tax Code

This story was initially printed in English at Prism.

This tax season in Georgia, some individuals have been requested an unexpected question: “Have been you pregnant in 2022?”

It’s the primary time anybody within the U.S. has seen the influence of a fetal personhood regulation on their tax types. Georgia initially handed its controversial “fetal heartbeat” bill in 2019, which banned abortion on the level {of electrical} exercise within the embryo besides in restricted instances of rape or incest, and took extra measures to grant authorized rights to fetuses. The regulation was promptly challenged in federal court and was ultimately struck down.

However all that modified final June when the Supreme Court docket issued its ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, overturning Roe v. Wade. The choice allowed Georgia to revisit its 2019 law, which was upheld and went into impact a month later.

Georgia’s regulation is exclusive for the lengths it goes to provide fetuses the identical rights as individuals. Whereas different states have attempted to include language on fetal personhood into their abortion legal guidelines, Georgia stays the only state to incorporate fetuses as an earnings tax deduction.

Kwajelyn Jackson, govt director of the Feminist Women’s Health Center in Atlanta, finds these provisions extremely regarding.

“What the opposition tries to claim is that this [fetus] is a separate entity from you, regardless that it’s within you,” she mentioned. “And subsequently, your selections aren’t your individual as a result of they implicate this different individual that now we have, in some instances, deemed as extra beneficial than you.”

Underneath the brand new regulation, Georgia residents can select to claim a fetus as a depending on their taxes. Anybody who claims an “unborn dependent” on their taxes is eligible to scale back their taxable earnings by $3,000 per fetus. If submitting individually, just one mum or dad might declare this exemption.

In response to quite a few reproductive justice advocates throughout the state, the tax exemption is a method of extending fetal personhood throughout Georgia’s broader authorized framework. Jackson views the inclusion of a tax exemption as mere lip service to supporting pregnant individuals and households with out making significant change.

“This was not essentially an excellent religion try and help individuals in being pregnant as a result of, concurrently this was being handed, we have been nonetheless preventing to expand Medicaid coverage for pregnant individuals past 60 days after supply,” Jackson mentioned. She additionally careworn the necessity to enhance Georgia’s maternal mortality charges, that are the worst in the country, and tackle systemic racism inside well being care, which leads to Black maternal mortality charges being twice as high as white ladies within the state.

Whereas submitting for the exemption itself is comparatively easy, the majority of the uncertainty lies in what occurs subsequent. The state has offered little readability on what documentation could also be required in an audit, nor has it established provisions on how this info could possibly be used sooner or later. Though the state’s guidance document explains that the exemption may apply within the occasion of a stillbirth or miscarriage, it doesn’t point out abortions.

The shortage of readability issues Allison Coffman, the chief director of the reproductive rights collaborative Amplify Georgia. One of many greatest unknowns is whether or not somebody could also be flagged for an audit in the event that they declare the exemption one yr however don’t declare a dependent within the subsequent.

“I fear that [auditors] would possibly begin to get at intention,” she mentioned, envisioning a number of potential traces of questioning. “Have been you conscious that you simply have been going to get an abortion? Have been you making an attempt to defraud the federal government and get tax deductions that you simply weren’t owed?”

Coffman additionally worries in regards to the elevated threat of criminalization when one more particular person — on this case, an auditor — is looped into realizing somebody’s private being pregnant info.

“Any time you power one other particular person to be in that circle of data, you’re opening yourself up to greater risks,” she mentioned.

Plus, audits themselves aren’t equitably carried out throughout earnings or race.

“Latest stories present that Black of us are audited at a much higher rate than white of us,” Coffman mentioned. “And so after we speak about who may doubtlessly get in bother for this, who could also be audited and required to offer documentation — it’s actually going to be Black of us.”

Past the authorized dangers, Coffman thinks the tax exemption could possibly be emotionally distressing.

“To me, it’s simply merciless,” she mentioned. “As anyone who has had miscarriages, the considered having to clarify my being pregnant loss and doc it in an auditing course of … truthfully, it’s unfathomable to me that I would want to show that my miscarriage was reputable.”

Georgia’s regulation raises tough questions for advocates on tips on how to counsel purchasers concerning claiming the tax exemption.

“Because it’s so new, it simply seems like an excellent unknown,” Coffman mentioned. “And it actually isn’t one thing we’re used to, as non-lawyers and non-accountants.”

Jackson agrees. “We are able to’t advise individuals on their tax preparation,” she mentioned. She in the end views the choice to say the exemption as an extension of non-public alternative. “If this [tax exemption] is offered and authorized, and there may be some methodology for individuals to have the ability to pursue it, it’s actually not my place to say that they will’t.”

For some, merely having to think about the nuances of counseling purchasers by means of new and doubtlessly dangerous tax selections represents a type of concession. Monica Simpson, the chief director of the nationwide reproductive justice collaborative SisterSong, mentioned that shifting gears from fighting Georgia’s law in court to working inside its many constraints has been draining.

“We have now been so targeted on making an attempt to defeat this, and to now must circle again to consider these extra items is difficult,” she mentioned. “They’re utilizing each attainable mechanism that they will to maneuver their agenda ahead, which is simply thoughts blowing.”

In her clinic, Jackson is worried about how far fetal personhood may go.

“We have now no actual readability from the state about the way it will have an effect on different components of the regulation that don’t have anything to do with the availability of well being care, or the way it would possibly criminalize individuals for [their] actions,” she mentioned.

In the end, a yr after the Dobbs resolution, specialists are nonetheless struggling to know what influence the fetal personhood regulation could have and the way they could protect their purchasers from potential tax dangers. Nonetheless, Coffman has mirrored on her private stance.

“Would I report a being pregnant?” Coffman requested. “I don’t suppose I’d really feel snug in any respect in doing that.”

Prism is an impartial and nonprofit newsroom led by journalists of coloration. We report from the bottom up and on the intersections of injustice.