For the Sake of America’s Women and Children, We Need a Permanent Monthly Child Tax Credit.

This past presidential election was hard for many, including myself. As someone who identifies as both politically left-leaning and pro-life, do you vote for someone who is adamantly pro-choice, or someone who’s destructive, race-baiting, erratic behavior was (quite literally) tearing the nation in two? Choosing was an impossibility, with no right answers.

We are now 100+ days into Biden’s Presidency and it’s no secret that Biden is now shaping up to be one of the most radically pro-choice president’s our country has ever seen. From nominating Xavier Becerra as Health Secretary, to reversing the Mexico City Policy, to excluding the Hyde Amendment from federal legislation for the first time in decades, it is quite clear that President Biden has no care or empathy in directly protecting the unborn through policy.

President Biden’s failures on abortion policy are very notable and they should not be minimized.

What the pro-life movement needs to understand however, is that there is an enemy out there that is bigger than Planned Parenthood, bigger than Joe Biden, and anything we can think of. It’s much bigger. And it does not get talked about enough. The issue is —

Poverty.

In a 2005 study, 73% of women undergoing an abortion said not being able to afford a baby now was a reason for the abortion. That number rose to 81% for women below the federal poverty line. And while the abortion rate for American women declined by 8% between 2000 and 2008, among poor American women it increased by 18%.

Women are more likely than men to be poor, and to be in “deep poverty” (with an income less than half the federal poverty line). U.S. Census Bureau figures show that 5 million more women than men were poor in 2012. Almost 31% of households headed by a single woman are below the poverty line, compared to 6% of households headed by a married couple. Women head over 80% of single-parent households, and almost half of children living with only their mother are poor. So poverty in America is often a story of poor women and children, with no man in the house.

It is quite clear from the data, that poverty is a main driver behind abortion. We are nowhere near building a safe country for poor mothers to raise children.

Bring in the expanded Child Tax Credit.

President Biden’s American Rescue Plan greatly expanded the Child Tax Credit by allowing households with children to claim up to $3,600 for younger children or $3,000 for children age 6 or older regardless of earned income. While the CTC currently phases in with income and only $1,400 can be refunded to low-income households, the American Rescue Plan allows the full credit for low-income households.

The credit is paid out in monthly installments. Struggling families could see monthly checks of $250 or $300 per child starting from July to December. For a family of three, this could bring in an extra $900 a month. This money can pay rent in certain areas of the country. In others, it could fully pay for groceries, a car payment to get to work, or many other things.

Over 90 percent of all families with children will receive an average benefit of $4,380, according to the Tax Policy Center. And the lowest income families will receive average benefits on par with middle- and high-income families, a departure from how the credit used to work.

Colleagues at the Urban Institute estimate that the advance portion of the CTC alone will reduce the share of children in poverty from 13.7 percent to 11.3 percent. When coupled with other major pieces of the ARPA, child poverty will fall to 6.5 percent — less than half what it is today.

This is extremely significant. A cut of child poverty in half will absolutely make a dent in the abortion rate. There are a significant amount of mothers who will choose life due to having an extra $300 a month.

But there’s a problem….

This is only in effect from 2021–2022.

It’s time for the entire pro-life movement to stand up and say we want to build a world where poverty is not destroying the future of our nation.

We need to stand up and say we want to build a world where every child that is brought into this country will not suffer, but will have the support they need to live healthy and flourishing lives.

Whether the president is President Trump, or President Biden, the goal remains — to make abortion unthinkable, and to create a culture of life. We must do everything we can to make this a reality. We must think creatively — we must push for things that maybe seem “socialist” or “too liberal” and invest in our children and families.

In defending unborn children, whom Mother Theresa called “the poorest of the poor,” we resist a “survival of the fittest” attitude that ignores the needy — including poor women, many of whom feel pressure to undergo abortions.

And in standing for the needs of the poor, we oppose a mentality that treats the very lives of some human beings — any human being, from conception to natural death — as unimportant or burdensome.

Our values as a nation have to be reflected in our budget.

That’s why we should pass a Permanent Monthly Child tax Credit NOW.

Is this too much to ask for, in the richest country in the world?

For many years people have debated whether we should reduce abortions by socioeconomic policy or by passing pro-life laws. The question is misplaced. It is not a matter of either/or, but of both/and. We need to address both poverty and bad abortion policies.

If President Biden won’t budge on bad abortion policy, let’s do what we can to kill poverty.

President Biden, Congress, Senate, it’s time to make this expanded child tax credit PERMANENT.

For the sake of America’s Women and Children.

Learn more at permanentchildtaxcredit.com.