It Takes a Village, But Let’s Start With a Child Benefit:A Public Policy Argument for Replacing the Current Child Tax Credit with a Universal Child Benefit After the Decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization
Author: Julia Pickett
With seemingly little regard to the consequences that this decision would have
on women, the Supreme Court decided to end constitutionally protected abortion
rights in the United States in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Center.
Many people are justifiably angry with the Democrats, who had almost 50 years
to codify Roe into law, especially with Republicans telling them that their goal was to
overturn Roe; having multiple “trigger laws” across the country that would end
abortion rights in their states the moment the Supreme Court overturned Roe. While
the Dobbs decision creates immense uncertainty about the future of the country, there
is an opportunity to implement some of the policies that had been put on the back-burner
and will now be even more relevant and necessary. The fact is that people will be having
more children now that abortion is no longer a constitutionally protected right and
services become less available. This is true, even though many companies have stepped
up and vowed to pay for their employees to travel to states where abortion will remain
legal, with some even paying for the abortion procedures as well. However, unfortunately,
it might only be a matter of time before conservative states ban travel out of state for
women seeking abortion services.