Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) said he thinks that men should be providing child support to pregnant women even prior to their child being born, adding to his campaign’s pro-family push.
DeSantis, who is vying to be the 2024 Republican presidential nominee, was asked in an interview with Fox News about Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-FL) legislation that would allow the court to award child support payments to mothers while the child is still in the womb.
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DeSantis said men should be providing child support to pregnant women, although he didn’t indicate whether he supported Rubio's legislation.
“Most of these women do not want to have abortions, but they feel like they have no other options because they get no support,” DeSantis said. “And that’s because a lot of these men are nowhere to be found — they should absolutely be providing support; they should absolutely be held accountable.”
DeSantis said that being anti-abortion means “for the whole kit and caboodle” and noted that, under his tenure, Florida has expanded postpartum medical care to impoverished women to a full year after childbirth and increased opportunities for foster care and adoption.
“I think a lot of it comes down to whether women think it’s financially feasible to do that, and when they don’t get support from the father, then it can be overwhelming,” he added. “So we in Florida are sympathetic to those women in that situation.”
The remarks contribute to the pro-family campaign platform that DeSantis and his team have been crafting. In an op-ed last month, the Florida governor said he wants families to be able to get by on the income of just one parent in an economic plan that went beyond the typical policy guardrails of lowering taxes and slashing regulations.
“We will diversify and expand our economy by rewarding hard work and empowering our citizens to control their own destinies,” he wrote. “We want to be a country that makes things, where a family can raise children on a single income, and where young people can develop the skills and values necessary to build a decent life and contribute to their communities.”
Blake Masters, who ran an unsuccessful 2022 Senate run in Arizona, popularized the idea of a federal policy enabling families to exist on the income of just one spouse, although it has grown in prominence among some right-wing populists who think that the government should better incentivize family-building.
Other presidential candidates have also endorsed policies that would provide greater government support for families at the federal level.
Gov. Doug Burgum (R-ND), in an exclusive interview with the Washington Examiner, revealed that he backs a bigger child tax credit for families. He joins Rubio, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), and others on Capitol Hill in the support.
In the House Republican Conference, Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-IA) reintroduced the package of bills in July that would expand the child tax credit and also allow the benefit to cover the time that a baby is in a mother’s womb.
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The legislation would expand the child tax credit from its current level of $2,000 up to $4,500 for children aged 5 and under and $3,500 for those over the age of 5. It would also provide benefits retroactively post-birth for the time that a child is in the womb.
"The Providing for Life Act charts the policy course for a culture of life in America — it is about valuing life at every stage and making critical investments in the long-term well-being of families," Hinson said in a statement to the Washington Examiner at the time.