On Friday, the Supreme Court released its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, ending Roe v. Wade. This end is long overdue. Abortion violates the most fundamental human right — the right to life — and requiring its legalization was never constitutional.
But even now that America’s pro-abortion legal regime has been overturned, our work is far from over. We can and must do more for unborn children and their mothers. What we need is a pro-life plan for post-Roe America. Fortunately, there are some concrete steps policymakers can take — steps that would make a world of difference to parents and children in need.
The first is to expand further the federal child tax credit for working families. When Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) and I expanded the credit in 2017, millions of people across almost every income bracket reaped the benefits. There is no reason why we shouldn’t do the same again. Working parents do more for America’s future than almost any other group — they deserve to keep more of their hard-earned income.
In the same vein, we should let pregnant mothers claim the credit for their unborn children. If we believe babies in the womb are real human beings, our laws should reflect that, especially when it helps some of our society’s most vulnerable.
And while we’re talking about tax credits, why not make the adoption tax credit fully refundable? Parents who adopt do a great service to women and children in need and to society in general. But currently, low-income and working-class adoptive families with minimal tax liability go unrecognized for their service. That should change.
Policymakers could also ease the burden on families by allowing new parents, biological and adoptive, to pull forward their Social Security benefits to finance time off work. People are entitled to those funds one way or another. If they would rather use them for parental leave than retirement, we should allow them to make that choice.
What else can Washington do to help mothers of young children? Tragically, some women consider abortion because they are afraid their husband or boyfriend will abandon them when a baby is born. Irresponsible fathers are a major cause of poverty, violence, and crime, and the government is no substitute for a good father. However, the government can ensure that men pay their share of the financial burden of parenthood. Congress should strengthen existing Child Support Enforcement rules in the social safety net, and it should expand child support to cover the period before as well as after birth.
Finally, being a mother is not only expensive; it’s challenging, potentially confusing and frightening, and at times, especially when delivering a child, dangerous. As such, policymakers should see that mothers have adequate healthcare, access to best practices, and knowledge of all their options.
That means working to improve maternal health and reduce stillbirth rates across the country and giving more nutritional aid to mothers and young children. It means supporting motherhood mentoring initiatives and establishing a national maternal resources clearinghouse. It means funding crisis pregnancy centers and lowering barriers to faith-based organizations’ provision of social services. And it means requiring colleges to inform students of the rights, protections, and options, other than abortion, they have recourse to in the event of pregnancy.
All these steps and more would provide real, meaningful aid to mothers and their babies — and they are all included as provisions in the Providing for Life Act, a new bill whose framework I have introduced this week. Now that Roe has been overturned, I hope my colleagues in Congress realize the importance of this moment and support my bill accordingly.
The pro-life movement has always been opposed to abortion. And rightly so — the right to life is the most basic right of all. But often overlooked in media coverage is pro-lifers’ commitment to helping and protecting mothers and their babies, both before and after birth. That plays out every day in communities and houses of worship all across the country. Now, we need to take it a step further and see that it plays out in Washington, D.C. It’s the only way to make a truly pro-life America a reality.
Sen. Marco Rubio is the vice-chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, a ranking member of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, and a member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.
