Texas Senate committee hears Hughes bill on child support at conception

AUSTIN, Texas (KLTV) - The Texas Senate Committee on Jurisprudence heard testimonies on Wednesday about a bill enacting retroactive child support.

SB 590 would require fathers to pay child support starting at conception rather than birth. The bill was introduced by Bryan Hughes (R-Minneola).

The resource witness spoke on behalf of the bill, saying that the current child support standards do not protect single mothers during pregnancy.

“You could have a situation where a married couple where the father leaves right at the moment the mother gets pregnant, and that person should get the same support back through conception,” the resource witness said.

Another witness testimony agreed with this point.

“A mother’s financial responsibilities begin immediately after she finds out she is pregnant, but the father’s don’t start until the baby is born,” witness Rebecca Parma said.

Several witnesses spoke against the bill, with one pointing out that there may be gaps in the legislation.

“As the bill is presented, any woman can name any man as the father with zero consequences for false accusations,” said witness Robert Garza. “We will see a huge spike in paternity fraud cases.”

The bill is left pending, and discussion will continue at a later date.

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