IRS: Abortion and birth control are tax-deductible
by Kelli
Have an abortion, get a tax deduction! How strange that pro-abortion advocates aren’t using this as a selling point. Hmmm.
Oh, and while they hyperventilate over Hobby Lobby not wanting to provide every type of birth control without a co-pay, it turns out that birth control pills can be deducted if prescribed by a doctor.
Also, you can deduct the purchase of pregnancy test kits and vasectomies.
~ Ashe Schow, “13 tax deductions you never knew existed,” Washington Examiner, April 15
[HT: LauraLoo]
Apr.17, 2014 1:00 am |
Contraception, Political anti-life bias |
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
Kill your unborn baby, get a tax deduction.
Foster a pet, get a tax deduction.
Nothing against animal shelters, but wow, our national priorities are messed up.
It’s basically an abstinence tax.
Q. Why would these make the list of “strange deductions”?
A. Because most people instinctively realize that contraception, abortion, and vasectomy are not real “healthcare.” They are lifestyle choices.
Abortion is not healthcare. People know it.
“13 tax deductions you never knew existed,”
I always find titles like this a little presumptuous. I mean, how do they know that don’t know about them?
“Kill your unborn baby, get a tax deduction.
Foster a pet, get a tax deduction.”
Well to be fair, you also get a huge tax deduction for each child you have as well. And if you go to college or your kid goes to college, or you buy a new home, etc etc etc. There are a gazillion tax deductions. The abortion one falls under the “medical expenses” along with everything else defined as “medical expenses”. Obviously, I don’t think abortion should be legal or a tax deduction should result from one. I have no problem with including the cost of contraceptives or vasectomies/tubal ligations under medical expense write offs.
Well to be fair, you also get a huge tax deduction for each child you have as well.
Jack, I guess you and I have different definitions of “huge tax deduction.” :D
*I
Hey, at my income level last year the child tax credits looked huge to me! ;) And the EIC is the best invention ever for poor parents, lol.
I think you have to itemize to be able to do that – so I don’t really think this is really the big deal they are trying to make it.
The cost of an abortion is not deductible unless you have already spent 10% of your AGI on medical expenses.
The cost of birth control prescribed by a doctor is not deductible unless you have already spent 10% of your AGI on medical expenses.
The cost of a pregnancy kit or a vasectomy is not deductible unless you have already spent 10% of your AGI on medical expenses.
Why does this site believe that pro-life readers don’t deserve the full truth?
I am a CPA. I didn’t think anyone wanted a lesson in the itemized deductions on Schedule A. But yes…. medical expenses must exceed 10% of AGI before there is any reduction to taxable income.
Lisa I don’t get how that changes the point of the quote? Yes, this only applies to itemized deductions and only after 10% of your AGI. But it can still be a deduction so the point stands.
Obviously very few people would be taking advantage of this deduction, unless they have a LOT of medical issues. Possibly the only people who would be able to use this deduction is someone who had a lot of health problems and had an abortion to save her life. I don’t have a problem with her taking a deduction for an necessary abortion like that. Or an impoverished woman who had to have an abortion to remove an ectopic pregnancy, surgery can be very expensive. But still, the point remains that abortion can be a tax deductible expense. So I don’t really understand your complaint.
Thank you, Del and Jack. I honestly don’t see how the requirement that all medical expenses for the year must be 10% of income changes the fact that these items are tax deductible…?