II
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 3485
To amend title IV of the Social Security Act to establish requirements
for biological fathers to pay child support for medical expenses incurred
during pregnancy and delivery.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
DECEMBER13, 2023
Mr. R
UBIOintroduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred
to the Committee on Finance
A BILL
To amend title IV of the Social Security Act to establish
requirements for biological fathers to pay child support
for medical expenses incurred during pregnancy and de-
livery.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Supporting Healthy 4
Pregnancy Act of 2023’’. 5
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•S 3485 IS
SEC. 2. REQUIRING BIOLOGICAL FATHERS TO PAY CHILD 1
SUPPORT FOR MEDICAL EXPENSES IN-2
CURRED DURING PREGNANCY AND DELIV-3
ERY. 4
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 454 of the Social Security 5
Act (42 U.S.C. 654) is amended— 6
(1) in paragraph (33), by striking ‘‘and’’ after 7
the semicolon; 8
(2) in paragraph (34), by striking the period 9
and inserting ‘‘; and’’; 10
(3) by inserting after paragraph (34), the fol-11
lowing: 12
‘‘(35) provide that the State shall establish and 13
enforce a child support obligation of the biological 14
father of a child to pay for not less than 50 percent 15
of the reasonable out-of-pocket medical expenses (in-16
cluding health insurance premiums or similar 17
charge, deductions, cost sharing or similar charges, 18
and any other related out-of-pocket expenses) the 19
mother of the child is responsible for that are in-20
curred during, and associated with, the pregnancy 21
and delivery of the child, provided that the mother 22
requests the payment of such support.’’. 23
(b) R
ULE OFCONSTRUCTION.— 24
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Nothing in paragraph (35) 25
of section 454 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 26
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•S 3485 IS
654), as added by subsection (a), shall be construed 1
to imply that an expense associated with an abortion 2
is a medical expense. 3
(2) A
BORTION DEFINED.—For purposes of this 4
subsection, the term ‘‘abortion’’ means the use or 5
prescription of any instrument, medicine, drug, or 6
other substance or device to intentionally— 7
(A) kill the unborn child of a woman 8
known to be pregnant; or 9
(B) prematurely terminate the pregnancy 10
of a woman known to be pregnant, with an in-11
tention other than to— 12
(i) increase the probability of a live 13
birth or of preserving the life or health of 14
the child after live birth; or 15
(ii) remove an ectopic pregnancy or a 16
dead unborn child. 17
(c) E
FFECTIVEDATE.— 18
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Subject to paragraph (2), 19
the amendments made by subsection (a) shall take 20
effect on January 1 of the first calendar year that 21
begins after the date of enactment of this Act. 22
(2) D
ELAY IF STATE LEGISLATION RE -23
QUIRED.—In the case of a State plan under part D 24
of title IV of the Social Security Act which the Sec-25
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•S 3485 IS
retary of Health and Human Services determines re-1
quires State legislation (other than legislation appro-2
priating funds) in order for the plan to meet the ad-3
ditional requirement imposed by the amendments 4
made by this Act, the State plan shall not be re-5
garded as failing to comply with the requirements of 6
such part solely on the basis of the failure of the 7
plan to meet such additional requirement before the 8
first day of the first calendar quarter beginning 9
after the close of the first regular session of the 10
State legislature that begins after the date of enact-11
ment of this Act. For purposes of the previous sen-12
tence, in the case of a State that has a 2-year legis-13
lative session, each year of the session shall be 14
deemed to be a separate regular session of the State 15
legislature. 16
Æ
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