Robert Anderson

COVID has been unkind to our neighbor Kathy, a 27 year-old, single mother of 2 beautiful little girls under 6.

Like hundreds of restaurant workers in Marquette County, Kathy lost her job due to COVID. She is behind in rent and faces eviction.

Her father died from COVD and the car she inherited from him just broke down. $2,200 of repairs she can’t afford. The American Rescue Plan (ARP) signed into law by President Joe Biden on March 11 will help bring Kathy and her daughters out of poverty.

According to the Center for American Progress, “The harmful effects of child poverty exact enormous costs on America’s society and overall economy.” Putting money in the hands of poor parents will speed the economic recovery as “their expenditures for goods and services will have a ‘multiplier effect’ on the economy.”

Does a public policy support human life or harm it? That is the pro-life lens I use to evaluate laws. And I am happy to report that the ARP is pro-life in many ways.

The Rescue Plan directly saves lives by dramatically expanding vaccines and testing. That is pro-life. And the Rescue Plan also fights poverty in many ways: unemployment benefits, stimulus checks, rent assistance for those who lost jobs and the new child tax credit.

Afterall, helping the poor especially in this crisis is pro-life according to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the leaders of other faiths. Commonweal, a pro-life Catholic publication founded in 1924 reports, “The ARP is perhaps the single greatest expression of solidarity in American politics since Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society. The law includes an enormous increase in the child tax credit while expanding eligibility; the bill is expected to reduce childhood poverty in the United States by half.” In Michigan alone, the Rescue Plan is expected to lift about 117,000 children out of poverty.

The reason why the new child tax credit is a big deal is because it is refundable–meaning that it provides direct payments to parents, like Kathy, who are well below the poverty line.

The popularity of the ARP is striking. A CBS/YouGov poll reports that roughly 75% of Americans support it, including 46% Republicans–despite that fact that no Congressional Republican voted for it. Shame on Congressman Bergman for voting against it–his position being against the best interests of his U.P. constituents. According to former U.P. Rep. Bart Stupak, “U.P. counties and businesses will receive approximately $57 million from the Rescue Plan to recover from the effects of the pandemic.” So much for Mr. Bergman’s recent promise to be bipartisan.

Not only should the poverty-reduction effects of the Rescue Plan’s refundable Credit command the support of those of us who are pro-life for the whole life but so should its pro-birth impact. The Credit provides direct financial support to cover maternity and post-birth childcare.

This will empower millions of pregnant women to go to term rather end their pregnancies. Research shows that for 73% of women who choose abortion say they simply cannot afford to have the baby. Keep in mind that the abortion rate came down by an unprecedented 28% during the Obama administration as women who did not have health insurance got ACA Medicaid coverage for maternity care and found they could afford to have babies. The problem is the new child tax credit expires next year unless it’s extended. So, we’ve got work to do to make it permanent.

I cannot believe that those in the pro-life movement, such as Right to Life of Michigan (RTLM), actually opposed the ARP–falsely claiming it is ‘pro-abortion’ because it does not expressly prohibit abortion. “This is simply not true,” Rep. Bart Stupak remarks. “First, there is nothing in the law which provides any funding for abortion. Second, the long-standing Hyde Amendment that prevents federal funds to be used for abortion is still the law of land. This means that any diversion of federal ARP funds for abortions would violate federal law and could be stopped.

RTLM and its partisan allies are actually single-issue organizations who apparently have little interest in protecting vulnerable children after they have been born.

Those who say they are pro-life have no justification to oppose a law that is so obviously pro-life. There is a Kathy in every neighborhood in the U.P.–even yours. All she and her kids need is a helping hand.

Let’s come together in solidarity and unity to defeat this pandemic.

Editor’s note: Robert Anderson is a Marquette attorney and is active in his church.