Sponsors
The bill trades clearer tax treatment and modestly higher federal revenue by denying deductions for employer reimbursements for abortion travel and certain minor gender‑affirming care against higher costs for employers and families, reduced benefit availability, and decreased access (with disproportionate effects on women and transgender youth).
Taxpayers and the federal government: Employer reimbursements for abortion travel and certain minor gender‑affirming care will be nondeductible, increasing employer taxable income and potentially raising federal corporate tax revenue.
Taxpayers and small-business owners: The bill clarifies tax‑code definitions for covered procedures and treatments, reducing ambiguity for IRS enforcement and taxpayer compliance.
Employers and employees: Employers who reimburse abortion travel or certain minor gender‑affirming care will face higher after‑tax costs and may reduce or eliminate those benefits, decreasing benefit availability for workers and shifting costs onto employees.
Parents, minors, and LGBTQ+ youth: Families will likely face higher out‑of‑pocket costs for gender‑affirming medical care for minors because employer reimbursements for those services are nondeductible, which will likely reduce access to care.
Women and transgender people: The bill singles out reproductive and gender‑affirming care for adverse tax treatment, creating a disparate impact and representing a targeted restriction on access to these forms of healthcare.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Removes business tax deductions for employer payments/reimbursements for employee abortion travel and gender‑transition procedures for an employee’s minor child, with narrow medical exceptions.
Introduced February 11, 2025 by Brian Jeffrey Mast · Last progress February 11, 2025
Prohibits businesses from claiming federal tax deductions for amounts they pay or reimburse an employee for travel to obtain an abortion or for gender‑transition procedures for the employee’s minor child. It defines covered terms (e.g., "gender transition procedure," specific surgeries, puberty‑blocking drugs, cross‑sex hormones) and creates narrow medical exceptions for certain disorders of sex development and life‑saving or function‑saving surgeries certified by a physician. The change is made by adding a new subsection to the Internal Revenue Code’s business expense deduction rules and applies to taxable years beginning after enactment. Employers who currently reimburse travel or cover certain procedures may lose the tax deduction for those amounts, which could alter employer benefit and reimbursement practices.