Mia was a few weeks pregnant when she saw her doctor. “They saw heart fibrillation and confirmed I was pregnant,” she said.
Mia is the name she used on Marketplace for legal reasons related to Georgia’s abortion law. Two weeks after that first visit, Mia received the devastating news that she had miscarried.
“At the appointment where they told us we had a miscarriage, the doctor said … (it might have been the ultrasound technician) … ‘You know, just to let you know I think you can still have these Got $3,000 as there was a heartbeat detected.’ And I’m just like, ‘What?’ I don’t know, it just sounds completely absurd to me.”
But it is Georgian law. The state abortion law of 2019 prohibits the medical procedure after about 6 weeks of pregnancy. It also recognizes an embryo as a person, and lawmakers have ruled that once the ultrasound detects heart activity, people can claim it as subject to state income taxes. But certified public accounts like David Wilkerson wonder how it will work.
“Right now, the federal government still doesn’t recognize the child until it’s born. And you must have a social security number,” he said.
Wilkerson is also a Democratic state official who voted against the bill and said he warned colleagues against making state tax filings more difficult.
For now, the Georgia Department of Revenue has only issued guidelines. It states that the $3,000 deduction for an embryo should be reported as “other adjustments” on the state tax form.
Ed Setzler is a Republican state official who campaigned for the Personal Safety Provision in the Act. “I think this bill balances difficult circumstances that women find themselves in,” he said.
But Andrienne Hills, who is expecting her second child next March, is unsure if she will claim the deduction. She said it felt like payment for more government control over her pregnancy.
“Okay, so we’re taking away a woman’s right to vote, but that’s what we care about so much that we’re giving this tax credit. It struck me as very disingenuous,” she said.
She said she’s also concerned about medical records the state may require from those claiming the deduction. The Treasury promised more details on the personal tax credit later this year.
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