Utah Now Making Fathers Chip in for Medical Costs Accumulated by Children They Sire

Because America both stigmatizes childbirth as a medical procedure akin to a tonsillectomy that must be performed in a hospital by an M.D. and doesn’t give a shit about astronomical healthcare costs, having a baby in the U.S., even with health insurance, costs around $5,000, more than most American households earn in a month. However, childbirth is free in most parts of the country for sack of shit fathers who don’t feel like paying.

Utah is the first state in the country looking to change that by passing legislation that will require fathers to foot half of the medical bills for childbirth, according to the BBC:

“Utah’s Shared Medical Costs law requires biological fathers to pay half of a mother’s insurance premiums – her monthly health insurance costs – during pregnancy as well as all other related medical fees, including the birth of the child.”

The law isn’t perfect, of course. Similar to child support, mothers have to seek payment through the court system, which, as the child of that court system, I can say with full authority that it sucks. The law also doesn’t cover the costs of abortion because, well, this is both American and Utah we’re talking about here. But still, it’s something, though if the powers that be would like Americans to keep birthing babies in service of our all-consuming economy, they should really make pushing them out free, at the very least.