SALT LAKE CITY — Under a newly signed Utah law, biological fathers will have to cover half of a mother’s pregnancy costs, The Associated Press is reporting.
Republican Utah Gov. Spencer Cox signed the legislation, which “requires a biological father to pay 50% of a mother’s insurance premiums while she is pregnant and pregnancy-related medical costs, including the hospital birth of the child, that are not paid by another person,” according to the bill’s text.
The law’s approval seems to mark the first time a state had made providing prenatal child support mandatory, the AP reported.
The legislation’s chief sponsor, Republican state Rep. Brady Brammer, told the AP that the bill aims to make it easier to have a child.
“We want to help people and actually be pro-life in how we do it as opposed to anti-abortion,” he told the AP. “One of the ways to help with that was to help the burden of pregnancy be decreased.”
The law specifies that “if paternity is disputed, a biological father owes no duty ... until the biological father’s paternity is established.” The biological father also is not required to pay if the mother has an abortion without his consent, except in cases of rape, incest or preventing the mother’s death, the law says.
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– The Associated Press contributed to this report.