Tax code weaponized: Congress penalizes abortion as 'not health care'
S. 253 — Abortion Is Not Health Care Act of 2025 · Filed by Mike Lee (R-UT) · 7 cosponsors · Introduced Jan 24, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill amends the tax code to prohibit taxpayers from deducting abortion expenses as medical costs, with narrow exceptions for abortions performed to save the mother's life or in cases of rape or incest. Currently, abortion costs can be deducted under the general medical expense deduction; this bill removes that eligibility for most abortions while preserving it only in life-threatening or non-consensual pregnancy scenarios.
Why we flagged it
The bill's operative mechanism is to remove a tax deduction, making abortion more expensive for those who pay out-of-pocket. The title frames this as a definitional statement ('Abortion Is Not Health Care'), but the actual effect is a targeted tax cost imposed on a specific medical procedure.
What the text implies
- The deduction removal applies only to taxpayers who itemize deductions and have sufficient medical expenses to exceed the standard deduction threshold — lower-income taxpayers who take the standard deduction see no tax effect, while higher-income itemizers bear the full cost, creating a regressive impact.
- The exceptions for life-endangering conditions and rape/incest are narrow and require physician certification for the life-endangering exception, potentially creating barriers to access and documentation burdens in time-sensitive medical situations.
The full analysis lists 3 implications of this text.
Who it affects
The bill removes a tax deduction that was previously available to taxpayers, increasing the after-tax cost of abortion for those who pay out-of-pocket. This is a direct financial cost to citizens who seek abortion care (except in narrow carve-outs).