New legislation in Georgia allows for unborn babies to be considered dependents on state taxes, as the state declares unborn babies to be “natural persons.”

On August 1, the state’s Department of Revenue announced that residents filing their 2022 tax returns who are parents to unborn babies with detectable heartbeats are eligible for a dependent personal exemption in the amount of $3,000.

The pro-life movement has always promoted the well-being of mothers and children in general — not just of children in the womb. Even after the demise of Roe v. Wade, killing developing babies remains legal in many states, so protecting their lives is still crucial. But in places where their lives are already protected, the spotlight will shift even more to helping mothers and children in general.

This change may unearth a latent faultline even among the ranks of the pro-life movement: For how should the well-being of mothers and children be promoted?

While pro-lifers in the US celebrate Roe’s reversal, the Dobbs decision has not received a unanimous welcome, especially among some of our European friends. Indeed, a handful of European state leaders, including France’s Emmanuel Macron, England’s Boris Johnson, and Scotland’s Nichola Sturgeon, have actually used their social media platforms to publicly decry the decision.
Yet the fact is that many European countries have far more restrictive abortion laws than those in many U.S. states.