We are living in a strange legislative world these days. Most Americans are not very happy with the way our legislative assemblies are working. Yet it seems that the response of legislators in many states is to see how many bills they can crank out that send a message of reverence for “family values.” Certainly, it’s tough to argue against these values in principle but the laws we are seeing up for consideration call into question whether anyone drafting them devoted time to thinking about them.
On January 16 of this year a bill was submitted in the Kentucky Senate to make fathers liable for child support retroactive to the date the child was conceived. Since we don’t have a means of knowing when that happens, the law says for up to a year after the child is born the mother can secure an order for support effective nine (9) months prior to the date of birth. After seven weeks on the legislative docket the Kentucky Senate passed the bill by a margin of 36-2 on March 5.
To be fair, it would seem consideration should be given to actual costs that a gestational parent may have incurred in carrying a child to term. Those costs can be substantial depending upon the course of the pregnancy. But that’s not the approach here. If a Kentucky woman becomes pregnant, she can collect child support at the same rate as any other kid in her house. If she carries triplets, that’s full child support for three, nine months before she makes her first trip to secure formula, diapers or the other daily expenses of a newborn child. She need not tell anyone she is pregnant until she files for support. And unless the health insurance system is changed, chances are if she has no insurance, the putative father will not know his new status and will not be able to put his new “child” on his health insurance. It also appears that these unborn children will likely produce unreimbursed medical expenses which will also have to be divided once a child support action is initiated. The bill also doesn’t mention a mechanism to establish pre-delivery paternity. There are pre-delivery tests which range from $400-2,000 and are non invasive while producing highly accurate test results. But they are more expensive and some can be invasive in ways that can be harmful. Compare that with $100-200 for the standard hospital test.
So assume you are a fellow in Kentucky who elected to have unprotected sex with a Kentucky belle. You make $18,000 a month and she makes $2,000. If you are served one day with a complaint for support, you will certainly be entitled to demand a paternity test, but if you are “it” you are likely to contribute about $14,000 to the cost of that pregnancy before anyone goes to the maternity ward. Not as clear but on the menu may be a 90% share of the cost of an uninsured delivery. In the U.S. that averages roughly $13,000 but varies widely by state. Thus, you may have almost $25,000 due in connection with a pregnancy you may or may not know anything about.
The challenge here is that support guidelines are typically built around U.S. Agricultural Department data assessing real life expenses for real life children who sleep in bedrooms, wear clothing, attend school and do all those things we customary do outside the womb. We don’t have Ag department data concerning costs for life “on the inside.” It does involve prenatal care, periodic testing and maternity wear but for most unborn children, life can be lived on the cheap until about 40 weeks. Changing the law to allow consideration of pre-birth direct and unreimbursed expenses seems like a reasonable result; especially after paternity is established. What Kentucky is trying to effect here appears to cast a minor inequity (no pre birth contribution) into a major problem. (full child support beginning at conception)
Query; a married couple living together throughout the period of their child’s gestation are leaving the hospital when mom announces she’s leaving the marriage to live with her mother; her boyfriend; her running partner. Does her husband owe her child support for the 9 months they lived together during the pregnancy? Here’s the bill. You find dad’s defense.
https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/recorddocuments/bill/24RS/sb110/bill.pdf
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