Georgians likely benefitted little from claiming fetuses on tax filings

People can claim $3,000 deduction for fetuses reaching six weeks gestation – but ‘it’s abortion politics’ not tax policy, experts say

There were more than 36,000 “unborn children” claimed in tax filings in Georgia in 2022, the year the state enacted an abortion ban that also let people claim fetuses as dependents. Claiming that fetus, however, may have only netted individuals less than a couple hundred dollars in a state where a fifth of all children live in poverty.

Georgia currently bans abortion past six weeks of pregnancy, which is before many women know they’re pregnant. But that ban, unlike the other dozen-plus bans that currently blanket much of the US south and midwest, includes a provision that allows people to claim a $3,000 deduction for a “dependent minor” fetus as long as that fetus reaches six weeks of gestation.