State Rep. Jamie Kiel believes that because Alabama is a pro-life state that’s banned most abortions, it’s now the responsibility of the state Legislature to help pregnancy resource centers.
Kiel (R-Russellville) introduced HB208, which would give tax credits to people and businesses who make cash contributions to eligible pregnancy resource centers in Alabama.
The lawmaker discussed his bill during a recent appearance on WVNN’s “The Yaffee Program.”
“In 2019, we passed the United States’ most stringent abortion bill and, in doing so, hopefully the by-product of that is that we have a lot more babies born in the state (and) a lot more mommas, and with that comes the responsibility to make sure that we are caring for them well,” Kiel said. “And so that’s what this does. It allows us to give funding to the pregnancy crisis centers that are serving those mothers and those babies, both before the babies are born and after they’re born.”
Kiel explained how the process would work.
“The individual that desires to give to a pregnancy crisis center would, through the Alabama Department of Revenue, fill out an application, and they would know if they’re going to receive that tax credit before they actually give the money to the pregnancy crisis center,” he said. “And so, you fill out the application, you get the slip, you send that money to the pregnancy crisis center, and then when you file your taxes, up to half of your state tax liability could be covered by that tax credit.”
He also discussed how pregnancy crisis centers have been able to help so people in Alabama and across the country.
“These crisis pregnancy centers, they play a big role in making sure the mom is successful,” he said. “And because the mom is successful, then the baby gets a real leg up on a start on where, if these resources were not available, they may have been at a disadvantage to other children that are born.”
Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on Twitter @Yaffee
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