GOP tax plan provision recognizes unborn babies

WASHINGTON — Tucked away in the Republican tax plan are several provisions that have little to do with overhauling the tax code and more to do with ensuring conservative lawmakers vote for the legislation.

The 400-plus-page bill released Thursday includes changes that would codify the rights of unborn children, allow tax-exempt religious organizations to engage in political activities and impose hurdles for immigrants seeking to claim refundable tax credits.

President Donald Trump has long sought to appeal to religious and social conservatives, many of whom were initially wary of his candidacy.

At a Values Voter Summit meeting in October, Trump said he was committed to “stopping cold the attacks on Judeo-Christian values” and said the country’s religious heritage would be “cherished, protected and defended like you have never seen before.”

The tax bill seems to deliver on that front. Among the biggest wins for social conservatives is the inclusion of the words “unborn child” in the legislation.

The language is contained in an innocuous provision related to education savings vehicles — so-called 529 plans, which are state-sponsored, tax-free investment funds that allow families to put aside money for a child’s college education. The provision explicitly allows expectant parents to designate a “child in utero” as a beneficiary of a 529 plan.

Parents have long been able to set up 529 accounts for an unborn child, but the provision accomplishes what anti-abortion activists have long sought: it enshrines into federal law the recognition of the unborn.

“An unborn child means a child in utero,” the provision states. “A child in utero means a member of the species Homo sapiens, at any stage of development, who is carried in the womb.”

Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of the Susan B. Anthony List, which opposes abortion rights, said the addition of the words “unborn child” was a major victory for their movement.

“It is fantastic because the unborn child is appropriately represented in the tax code,” she said. “All of these things represent a serious commitment to treating the unborn child, as she or he should be, equal and protected in the eyes of the law.”

The bill also contains a sought-after change by the religious right: repeal of the Johnson Amendment, which prohibits tax-exempt organizations such as churches from engaging in political activity.

Eliminating it was an early campaign promise of Trump’s, and it has been a cause long championed by religious conservatives.

“Repealing the bigoted Johnson Amendment is long overdue,” Ralph Reed, the head of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, said in a letter Thursday to members of Congress.

“This clearly unconstitutional restriction on freedom of speech has been used by the Internal Revenue Service to harass, intimidate and persecute the faith community for over six decades,” he wrote. “It is long past time to repeal it, and we strongly support this legislation’s provision restoring the full First Amendment rights of people of faith.”

Still, doing away with the Johnson Amendment is not a cause that unites all conservatives, nor is it one that liberals are likely to let go quietly because of the clout it would give pastors in the electoral process.

“The entire reason Donald Trump promised religious leaders he would help get rid of the Johnson Amendment was to empower the Christian right,” said Peter Montgomery, a senior fellow for People for the American Way, a left-leaning political advocacy group.

Other aspects of the bill would make it harder for immigrant parents to claim the refundable child tax credit, even if their children were born in the United States. Under the legislation, filers would need to provide a Social Security number, rather than just a taxpayer identification number, in order to claim the benefit, which can be claimed even by those who owe no taxes. Social Security numbers are provided only to U.S. citizens or those authorized to work in the country.

The left-leaning Center on Budget Policy and Priorities said the provision would roll back eligibility for about 3 million children in working families, including about 80 percent born in the United States.