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Pro-family and Pro-life Tax and Budget Reforms for 2025

6 ERLC Priorities for Budget Reconciliation

Pro-family and Pro-life Tax and Budget Reforms for 2025

The ERLC has developed a series of 6 pro-family and pro-life priorities for tax and budget reforms in 2025 so that lawmakers can better promote life and support families as they review potential tax and budget reforms in the reconciliation process. Southern Baptists place a high value on the institution of the family, referred to as the “foundational institution of human society.”1Baptist Faith & Message 2000 Additionally, our nation’s tax code and how our budgetary resources are allocated directly reflect what we as a nation value. Above other priorities, we should unequivocally communicate that our nation values life and values families. By prioritizing these pro-family and pro-life tax and budget reforms for 2025, Congress can help build a society that uplifts and sustains the family as a vital cornerstone of human flourishing.

In 2025, Congress will attempt to utilize a legislative process known as budget reconciliation. This unique legislative tool allows lawmakers to make changes to the nation’s tax code and budget-related matters. Additionally, provisions in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act are set to expire at the end of the year. The expiration of these initiatives presents a unique opportunity to help vulnerable women and families choose life for their preborn children. Congress should do this through eliminating all funding for Planned Parenthood and redirecting those funds to better support families and children. Through these pro-family and pro-life tax and budget reforms for 2025, the ERLC is advocating for policies that prioritize life, provide greater financial support to families, and protect the most vulnerable in our society. As a result, the ERLC has developed a series of priorities for lawmakers to better promote life and support families as they review potential reforms to our tax and budgetary systems in the reconciliation process.

  1. Defund Planned Parenthood
  2. Remove financial barriers for choosing life
  3. Improve the Adoption Tax Credit
  4. Reduce marriage penalties
  5. Support Pregnancy Resource Centers
  6. Support a Universal Charitable Deduction

1. Defund Planned Parenthood 

Southern Baptists believe in the sanctity of preborn life and consistently support measures that restrict implicating the conscience of taxpayers in abortion procedures through provisions like the Hyde Amendment. While the Hyde Amendment prevents taxpayer dollars from being used to cover an abortion, Planned Parenthood, America’s largest abortion provider, still receives federal and state Medicare reimbursements and direct government grants to financially assist with other procedures like prenatal care and cancer screenings.

According to Planned Parenthood’s own 2022-23 annual report, the organization received $699.3 million in taxpayer funds, making up 34% of Planned Parenthood’s total annual revenue.2 Fact Sheet: Planned Parenthood’s 2022-23 Annual Report – Lozier Institute Planned Parenthood’s taxpayer funding has increased by 43% since 2010, though the majority of its non-abortive procedures continue to decline. For example, prenatal services are down 80% since 2009, and cancer screenings have declined 71% since 2010. The only procedure that has increased at Planned Parenthood is abortions. The organization is responsible for ending nearly 400,000 preborn lives every year.3 Planned Parenthood Report: More Abortion, More Taxpayer Dollars, and Fewer Health Services Yet, Planned Parenthood is seeing continual growth in taxpayer funding while the services that money goes toward continually decline. 

Planned Parenthood is currently eligible to receive Title X funds, a federal program that provides funding for family planning services. While the organization may receive taxpayers funds to assist with services like adoption referrals, it only refers one child for every 228 children it aborts.4 Fact Sheet: Planned Parenthood’s 2022-23 Annual Report – Lozier Institute Meanwhile, pro-life states have had Title X funds withheld because pro-life health clinics refuse to violate state law and their moral convictions by referring women to abortion clinics.

The ERLC is calling on legislators and the Trump administration to take concrete steps in a reconciliation bill to ensure that no funds are allocated to Planned Parenthood or its affiliates. Planned Parenthood’s predatory, deceptive, and destructive practices are preying on vulnerable women at the expense of the American taxpayer. Redirecting these funds toward the priorities listed in this document and pregnancy resource centers or other qualified health clinics that provide comprehensive care and support for mothers without performing abortions is a crucial step in protecting life and respecting the consciences of taxpayers. 

2. Remove financial barriers for choosing life

Southern Baptists believe children are a “blessing and heritage from the Lord”5 Baptist Faith & Message 2000 
and that parents are the “primary stewards of their children.”6 On the God-Given Rights and Responsibilities of Parents – SBC.net  They have also time and again affirmed a desire to protect the lives of precious preborn children and “eliminate any perceived need for the horror of abortion.”7 On Anticipation of a Historic Moment in the Pro-life Movement – SBC.net  Economic insecurity is frequently cited as the primary reason that many women choose abortion. 

As a result, the ERLC is strongly supportive of the removal of any financial barriers that could discourage parents from choosing life. The ERLC is broadly supportive of policy measures that assist parents in choosing life and financially supporting their families.8 ERLC Pro-life Child Tax Credit Deal Letter The Child Tax Credit (CTC) has been recognized on a bipartisan basis as one of our nation’s most effective tools in combating child poverty. 

In the 2017 tax negotiations, Congress acted to increase the CTC to $2,000. Without Congressional action the CTC will revert back from $2,000 to $1,000, effectively imposing a tax increase on roughly 40 million families.9 The Child Tax Credit | The White House  As such, the ERLC supports including an enhanced CTC in upcoming reconciliation negotiations that builds on the success of the expanded CTC.

Some additional improvements that negotiators should consider include raising the maximum credit amount to keep up with inflation, ensuring that larger families are not penalized by instituting a faster credit phase-in, and that lower-income working families can benefit from the full credit, while maintaining important work requirements. Through supporting families that already have children, parents will be better equipped to care for their children and new parents will be empowered to choose life.

In addition to an expansion of the Child Tax Credit, measures such as a one-time allowance received at childbirth would ease the financial burdens associated with childbirth, postpartum care, loss of income associated with pregnancy and childbirth, and loss of income due to taking unpaid leave from the workplace. Moreover, including preborn children in the Child Tax Credit or increasing the amount of the CTC for the first few years of life could also assist in surging resources to parents at this uniquely vulnerable time. These types of payments would function as a temporary financial bridge, helping women and families to choose life. As a result, the ERLC encourages negotiators to develop similar policies designed to alleviate the one-time costs associated with pregnancy and childbirth.

3. Increase and make refundable the Adoption Tax Credit

Southern Baptists believe adoption is a central theme reflected through Scripture and a crucial way Christians can live out the tenets of our beliefs by caring for the vulnerable. A recent study found practicing Christians are twice as likely to adopt as the general population.10 New Barna Research Highlights Christian Adoption & Foster Care Among 3 Most Notable Vocational Trends And yet, the National Council for Adoption estimates that over 100,000 children remain available for adoption in the United States each year.11 Foster Care and Adoption Statistics – AFCARS Annual Update 

In part, this issue exists because adoption remains a lengthy and expensive process, putting it out of reach for families seeking to adopt. The Department of Health and Human Services estimates that the average cost for families to adopt ranges from $20,000–45,000 but can be higher depending on the method of adoption.12 Planning for Adoption: Knowing the Costs and Resources  The adoption tax credit exists to assist families seeking to adopt by alleviating some of the high financial burden families incur, and the current threshold as a result of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is $15,950 per adopted child. However, families that earn less than $30,000 are ineligible to receive this tax benefit, and families earning between $30,000–50,000 only receive a partial tax credit, meaning many families that this tax credit was intended to help will not receive assistance.

The ERLC supports legislation like the Adoption Tax Credit Refundability Act, which would improve the efficacy of the existing adoption tax credit by making it fully refundable. A refundable adoption tax credit would assist the majority of families who participate in adoption and make less than $100,000 annually by ensuring they are able to receive the full benefit of this credit.13 What is the adoption tax credit? | Tax Policy Center  Similarly, increasing the overall amount of the adoption tax credit will assist families by allowing them to afford the many components of the adoption process in an expedited time frame. The ERLC urges negotiators to consider these tangible steps to help these vulnerable children in our nation be placed into loving homes and encourage women and families to choose life.

4. Reduce marriage penalties

Southern Baptists believe marriage is “the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime. It is God’s unique gift to reveal the union between Christ and his Church and to provide for the man and the woman in marriage the framework for intimate companionship, the channel of sexual expression according to biblical standards, and the means for procreation of the human race.”14 Baptist Faith & Message 2000  Secular research also reflects that marriage is a necessary family structure that promotes human flourishing for children and society at large; recent studies show that children who grow up in a two-parent household are less likely to be depressed, convicted of a crime, or a lower-income adult.15 New Research Confirms Having Married Parents Helps Kids Get Ahead 

As a result, the ERLC encourages negotiators to evaluate and remove marriage penalties in the current tax code. One such example of this is the Head of Household status, which provides a larger standard deduction to unmarried taxpayers in care of other persons, a policy initially intended to support lower-income individuals who had dependents and yet were unmarried, particularly single mothers. In practice, this policy encourages individuals not to marry since by cohabitating couples receive a net refund greater than a married couple. Additionally, this policy is typically most often utilized by higher income single parents, not the low income families it was intended to assist.16 Building a Stronger Foundation for American Families: Options for Child Tax Credit Reform – Niskanen Center As a result, the ERLC urges negotiators to consider removing Head of Household status and other marriage penalties, thereby further encouraging two-parent households. This should be paired with a significant increase in the Child Tax Credit to avoid penalizing working-class and middle-class single-parent households.  

5. Support Pregnancy Resource Centers through tax credits

Southern Baptists support life inside and outside of the womb, as evidenced through the wide array of support provided to these centers, often on a volunteer basis and through donations. Pregnancy resource centers (PRCs), also referred to as crisis pregnancy centers, provide lifesaving services to mothers, families, and preborn children. In 2019, an estimated 2,700 pregnancy resource centers served approximately 2 million clients, providing free or low-cost pregnancy tests, testing for sexually transmitted diseases, and ultrasounds.17 Fact Sheet: Pro-Life Pregnancy Centers Deliver Real-World Results – Lozier Institute  This amounts to roughly $270 million in services and countless support in the form of mentorship and material support provided at little or no cost to clients. As a recent Lifeway Research study shows, 16% of churchgoers reported that their church has financially supported a local pregnancy resource center, and 14% said their church has encouraged congregants to personally financially support these centers.18 Some Churches Partner With Pregnancy Centers After Roe v. Wade Reversal – Lifeway Research 

The ERLC supports legislation that seeks to assist PRCs in growing in their capacity to serve families. For example, the Pregnancy Center Support Act would implement a 50% tax credit for donations made to pregnancy resource centers by taxpayers, further incentivizing individuals to generously give directly to PRCs.19 Pregnancy Center Support Act (S. 3610) – Congress.gov  The ERLC encourages negotiators to include a similar provision in future tax negotiations that would lead to increased donations to PRCs, resulting in more preborn lives saved and families served.

6. Support a Universal Charitable Deduction

Southern Baptists have affirmed tax policies that incentivize charitable giving, seeing it as a way to encourage generosity and care for the vulnerable.20 On Deductibility of Charitable Contributions – SBC.net  Many of the institutions undergirding our society, including churches and faith-based organizations, rely on the generosity of others to serve their neighbors and fill the gap between the government’s services and their local community’s needs. As a result, the ERLC supports the inclusion of a tax provision that would no longer require taxpayers to itemize their tax returns in order to claim the charitable tax deduction.

Churches and faith-based organizations are indispensable service providers in meeting the needs of America’s most vulnerable populations. Without faith-based organizations, millions of Americans would not receive the critical services they need to thrive and flourish. From services for mental health and addiction, to homeless shelters, to healthcare, to immigrant and refugee services, faith-based organizations are at the forefront of serving our country’s most needy communities. Religious congregations provide 7.6 million volunteers to run 1.5 million social programs in America each year.21 The Socio-economic Contribution of Religion to American Society  And the impact of these groups continues to grow. Researchers Brian and Melissa Grim report that “religious organizations have tripled the amount of money spent on social programs in the last 15 years to $9 billion.22 Id.  They also explain that 40% of the top 50 charities in the U.S. are faith based, with combined operating budgets of over $45.3 billion.23 Faith-based charities identified by their self-description from a list of the 50 largest U.S. charities on the Forbes top charities list – forbes.com It is important to note that many of these faith-based organizations choose to reject government funds due to their deeply held religious beliefs, making charitable contributions the primary way they fund their ministries and activities.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 created a new standard whereby taxpayers must itemize their giving in order to receive the charitable deduction tax benefit. When paired with the increase of the standard deduction, only roughly 10% of taxpayers are currently eligible to receive the existing charitable deduction. As a result, current federal tax policies no longer encourage most taxpayers to financially contribute to charity.24 Tax law change caused U.S. charitable giving to drop by about $20 billion, new study shows When adjusted for inflation, 2023 total giving declined by 2.1%, and individual giving declined by 2.4%.25 Giving USA: U.S. charitable giving totaled $557.16 billion in 2023 

As a result, the ERLC supports a Universal Charitable Deduction (UCD). A UCD would incentivize all taxpayers, not just higher income taxpayers who itemize their deductions, to generously donate to the vital work of charities. The ERLC supports legislation to this effect, such as the Charitable Act, which would increase the UCD to an amount of up to one-third of the standard tax deduction.26 Charitable Act (S.566) – Congress.gov The ERLC encourages negotiators to implement a UCD or a similar policy to further incentivize charitable giving.

Conclusion: A unique opportunity for pro-family and pro-life tax and budget reforms for 2025

In 2025, Congress has a unique opportunity to build upon and improve the helpful policies established by the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and advance a budget reconciliation bill that will support working families and further ingrain pro-life, pro-family values into our nation’s tax and budget policy. With these 6 pro-family and pro-life tax and budget reforms for 2025, the ERLC is committed to advocating for improvements that strengthen families and create an environment where they can thrive. The ERLC believes these recommendations should be prioritized as lawmakers pursue fiscally responsible updates to our budget allocations and tax code. 

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