No woman should ever have to choose between her baby and her bank account.
In America today, giving birth too often feels like a financial gamble. Even families that have insurance can end up with crippling bills. Experts warn that childbirth can cost families thousands of dollars, and that new mothers are twice as likely as other young women to carry medical debt.
As Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) has noted, the fear of an enormous bill leads some women to delay or even skip prenatal or postpartum care, endangering their health and their baby’s. No pregnant woman or new mother should have to make such a choice.
The reality is dire. On average, childbirth adds nearly $19,000 in medical expenses to a family’s health costs, even for those with typical employer coverage. Insurers might pay most of it, but new parents still owe about $2,800 out of pocket.
Those with high-deductible plans or insurance gaps face an even worse situation: some pay $5,000 to $10,000 just to deliver their baby.
These costs aren’t easy to predict. Hospital pricing is famously opaque, with quoted “estimated costs” varying wildly by facility. A family welcoming a January baby may even meet their deductible twice—once the year before and again in the new year.
The result is often anxiety instead of celebration: women tell us they worry over bills before they even hold their newborn.
In too many stories, mothers put off care, take on debt, or even skip medications because they dread the hospital statement. This financial uncertainty turns what should be one of life’s happiest moments into a source of fear.
In fact, about one in five new mothers report difficulty paying medical bills, compared to roughly 15 percent of other women. Postpartum women—many still recovering physically—are 48 percent more likely to face medical-bill problems than their peers who haven’t had a baby. And new mothers are twice as likely to have medical debt as women of the same age without babies.
Young, low-income, and vulnerable mothers bear a disproportionate share of this strain: one study found poorer moms shoulder an especially heavy debt burden after childbirth.
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Many are forced into impossible choices, such as taking out high-interest loans or even delaying other needed health care. It’s a bitter injustice that the women who nurture our next generation often start parenthood buried in debt.
The Supporting Healthy Moms and Babies Act offers a solution that Democrats and Republicans, parents and pro-life advocates alike, can embrace.
This truly bipartisan bill, introduced by Senators Gillibrand, Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), would make childbirth effectively free for families with private insurance. It does so by listing pregnancy, labor, delivery, and postpartum care as essential health benefits and eliminating deductibles and co-pays for those services.
Under the plan, everything from prenatal visits and ultrasounds to delivery services, mental health support, and substance-abuse treatment in the year after birth—even miscarriage care—would be fully covered. In practical terms, that means a family can welcome a baby without worrying about bills. And it won’t blow up the system: experts estimate the cost would be tiny—around $30 more per person per year in premiums, far below typical annual premium inflation.
Importantly, this proposal is backed by a broad coalition that spans our fractured politics. Groups as diverse as the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the Catholic Health Association, the March of Dimes, and Concerned Women for America support it.
In fact, Americans United for Life has praised this “innovative policy” as ensuring that cost is “never a deciding factor in welcoming a child.” Veteran pro-life leaders recognize that removing financial barriers to childbirth is the very essence of pro-family, pro-woman policy. As one pro-life advocate put it, this bill helps families “choose life without fear of crippling medical expense.”
At Democrats for Life of America, my organization, our position is clear: every parent deserves support—and every child a healthy start. Making birth free is a practical way to live that out.
In short, this legislation is both pro-life and pro-woman. It affirms that a woman’s choice to bring life into the world should not lead to financial ruin. It advances real reproductive justice by caring for mothers and babies together. Passing this bill would show that we value families more than insurance industry profits. As Americans United for Life notes, “true pro-family policy meets mothers and babies at their point of need,” and we shouldn’t let partisanship stand in the way of what all Americans want: healthy, financially secure families.
The Supporting Healthy Moms and Babies Act is common sense. It respects the dignity of every pregnancy, and brings together doctors, faith leaders, and parents across the country to do what’s right. Congress can—and should—pass it swiftly.
No woman should have to worry whether she can afford the very act of giving life. Let us unite behind this cause. By eliminating the financial hurdles to motherhood, we empower families, uphold the sanctity of life, and make America a place where raising a child is not a death sentence but a blessing.
Kristen Day is the executive director of Democrats for Life of America.
The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.
