Sen. Merika Coleman, D-Pleasant Grove, speaks to a colleague on the floor of the Alabama Senate on Feb. 4, 2025 in Montgomery Alabama. The Alabama Legislature began its 2025 session on Tuesday. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector)
The Alabama Senate passed a bill Tuesday that would allow child support payments to be retroactively applied to cover expenses incurred during pregnancy.
Under SB 18, sponsored by Sen. Merika Coleman, D-Pleasant Grove, child support payments could be ordered retroactively to cover the nine months prior to birth if paternity is legally established within a year of a child’s birth.
“[Republicans] passed a trigger piece of legislation here in the state of Alabama that said ‘life begins at conception,’ and so, if life begins at conception, based on the legislation that they passed, if you have a live birth, then financial support for that live birth shouldn’t start once the baby is born. It starts in utero,” Coleman said after the bill’s passage.
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She said that pregnancy is expensive, and families start preparing for their child’s birth well before they are born, adding to expenses.
“I’m a mother, and we didn’t just start buying for Xaviar and Elexia once they were born, we prepared for their love,” she said.
The Senate adopted two amendments to the bill before final passage. One clarifies that retroactive child support applies only in cases of live births, explicitly preventing claims for pregnancies ending in stillbirth. Another amendment grants judges discretion over whether to order retroactive support, a change from last year’s version of the bill, which required it in all cases.
“There are situations where you’ll have a father that has paid throughout the nine months or has been very supportive,” Coleman said.
Coleman also pointed to the bill’s limits, saying that it only applies in cases where paternity is established through the courts within the first year of a child’s life. She said after the bill’s passage that it was meant to exempt cases in which people establish paternity years after birth.
The bill passed the Senate 31-0 and had vocal support from at least one Republican, Sen. Chris Elliot, R-Josephine, who stood behind Coleman and said, “She’s right” after she discussed the bill.
The legislation now heads to the House of Representatives for consideration.
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