Personhood, Reproductive Choice, and Family Formation: Tax Traps and Opportunities in the Post-Dobbs Era

October 11, 2022 -
1:30pm to 2:30pm

Panelists:
Carliss Chatman, JD, Associate Professor of Law, Washington & Lee University
Katie Pratt, JD, LLM, LLM, Professor of Law, Loyola Law School, Los Angeles
Erin M. Sweeney, JD, Partner, DLA Piper LLP

Moderator:
Brittany Johnson, JD, Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders LLP

Abstract: The US Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization reversing the landmark case of Roe v. Wade has both opened tax traps and created tax opportunities that concern all Americans. To introduce these traps and opportunities to the general public, this panel will begin with a discussion of the fetal personhood movement and its potential tax ramifications. Next, the panel will consider how Dobbs may have expanded (1) the tax definition of a “dependent” and (2) eligibility for tax benefits for reproductive “medical care” — including abortion, cryopreservation, in vitro fertilization, and surrogacy — for different-sex and same-sex couples and for individuals. Finally, the panel will conclude with a discussion of the post-Dobbs tax aspects of employer-provided travel and lodging benefits associated with medical care, with a particular focus on the need to address concerns regarding the potential use of the tax system to surveil and criminally punish reproductive choices. This program will address some of the legal impacts of recognizing fetal personhood, including the possibility that employee benefit plans created to aid with travel and lodging to secure abortion care might be used to surveil and criminally punish women. The framework for this discussion is tax law, but the conversation explores legal ramifications of Dobbs that affect many domains of life.

Hosted by the American Bar Association Tax Section, organized by Anthony Infanti, JD, LLM, Christopher C. Walthour, Sr. Professor of Law, University of Pittsburgh