Republicans launch bill that would require fathers to pay child support to unborn babies: Senator says legislation would make it possible for mother to get back pay from as early as conception 

• Under the bill, mothers would be able to request child support from the moment of conception 
• They would even be able to collect the payments retroactively if paternity was not established until birth
• Pro-choice advocates have accused Republicans of not providing enough assistance mothers or children despite being pro-life 
• Amending federal law to say that child support is owed during pregnancy could help clear the way for a federal abortion ban 

New legislation launched by Republicans would require a father to pay child support throughout a pregnancy. 

Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., introduced the Unborn Child Support Act last week that would amend the Social Security Act to 'ensure that child support for unborn children is collected and distributed under the child support enforcement program.'

Under the bill, mothers would be able to request child support from the moment of conception and would even be able to collect the payments retroactively if paternity was not established until birth. 

The bill has nine Republican co-sponsors in the Senate -  Marco Rubio and Rick Scott Fla., Marsha Blackburn, Tenn., Cindy Hyde-Smith and Roger Wicker, Miss., James Lankford and Jim Inhofe, Okla., and Steve Daines, R-Mont. 

Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., has introduced a companion bill in the House which has 13 co-sponsors. 

Pro-choice advocates have accused Republicans of not providing enough assistance mothers or children despite being pro-life and the bill looks to remedy such criticisms, particularly after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. 

'I hope good legislation, like the Unborn Child Support Act, gets more support now that the Dobbs decision encourages us to look more seriously at supporting mothers and their unborn children,' said Hyde-Smith in a statement. 

'Caring for the well-being of our children begins long before a baby is born. It begins at the first moment of life – conception – and fathers have obligations, financial and otherwise, during pregnancy,' said Cramer. 

But sponsors of the bill could also have an alternative motive - amending federal law to say that child support is owed during pregnancy could help clear the way for a federal abortion ban by establishing that legal personhood begins at conception. 

Cramer and a number of the child support bill's co-sponsors also co-sponsors of a stalled bill that would establish the right to life begins at the moment of fertilization. 

'This is not the first time they've tried to insert this personhood language into a national bill,' Mississippi Reproductive Freedom Fund co-founder Laurie Bertram Roberts told the Mississippi Free Press. 

'And see, the way they're doing it is very sneaky, the way they're doing it is under the guise of, 'Oh look, doesn't this make sense?' Because this is one of those arguments that has been coming from people who actually support abortion, which is why I tell people not to make these arguments, even in jest, like, "If y'all want to make us have babies, start child support at the moment of conception.'''

In a viral tweet in May 2019, Washington and Lee University Law Professor Carliss Chatman wrote: 'If a fetus is a person at 6 weeks pregnant, is that when the child support starts? Is that also when you can’t deport the mother because she’s carrying a US citizen? Can I insure a 6 week fetus and collect if I miscarry? Just figuring if we’re going here we should go all in.'