Tucked into a bill designed for farmers to exempt enhanced agricultural equipment from their taxes, Maryland passed a proposal that would give parents of stillborn children an income tax credit of $1,000 to offset the unexpected costs they face while grieving a child.
The amendment came after two consecutive legislative sessions where a standalone bill to provide the tax credit stalled in committee, leaving parents with no relief. Not to be deterred, Sen. Jeff Waldstreicher of Montgomery County, who sponsored the original bill, added the language to House Bill 547 at the last minute.
“This was a multi-year labor of love that I was honored to fight alongside stillbirth parents. Persistence is its own reward: we never gave up and were able to attach our bill to another bill with the full support of Leadership,” Waldstreicher said before Gov. Wes Moore signed it into law on April 28.
The victory came from years of independent advocacy from parents Jessica Brady Reader and Lauren Petit, who in two separate legislative sessions worked with senators to draft and introduce a tax credit that would recognize their children that were stillborn.
“This bill will give recognition from the state that my baby mattered and counted,” said Reader, whose child was born stillborn in July 2021.
Parents going to the hospital to give birth expect to bring a child home, and they remodel a nursery, buy new clothing and items like strollers and cribs. Some families can spend up to $300 on breastfeeding supplies, $300 on the first few months of diapers, and between $500 to $2,000 remodeling a nursery.
“My house was prepped and ready for her to come home. We bought diapers, a new car seat, new bottles, and all kinds of materials for our new baby. After she died, we paid for cremation. And there were additional costs like mental health care, time off of work, meals because I wasn’t up for cooking,” Reader said. “Any time somebody is in crisis, they find it can be an expensive pursuit.”
Reader looked for support through online forums. She came across legislation that had passed in states such as Arizona and Minnesota for a tax credit for parents of stillborn children, and thought it could happen in Maryland pretty easily if it passed in other states.
She emailed her senator, Waldstreicher, and asked him to sponsor the bill for the 2025 legislative session.
“When I got the email [from Reader], my brain started working on two levels. First, as a dad, I have three children of my own, and the second as a legislator,” Waldstreicher said. “I started doing the math, how many parents in Maryland experience a stillbirth, how expensive this bill would be, and will the price of this bill be an obstacle to its passage.”
“It was the right thing to do. I put in the bill to provide a modicum of financial assistance as well as a symbol of empathy for what stillbirth parents are going through,” said Waldstreicher.
For families who have experienced a stillbirth, they want their child recognized by the state. This new law allows their stillborn child to be recognized by the state, as well as provide financial relief from the costs.
“People are uncomfortable with perinatal loss, especially stillbirth. Having a space [for the stillborn children] on your taxes is a way that the state of Maryland says, we see your babies the same way we saw your living babies,” said Maureen Gaffney of Frederick County, who has experienced two stillbirths.
Reader and Waldstreicher didn’t expect the tax credit to take the arduous journey it did. Minnesota’s bill, for example, passed in the 2016 legislative session the first time it was introduced. In Maryland, it took three. The bill was held in the House Ways and Means Committee in last and this year’s sessions despite bipartisan support in the Senate.
The bill was delayed in part because some legislators worried that cash-strapped parents couldn’t wait a year for the $1,000 credit. At the March 24 hearing, committee Chair Jheanelle K. Wilkins wondered if parents would be better served with a grant to access the funds quicker rather than waiting until the next year to see the $1,000 on a tax refund. After that hearing, the bill did not advance to the House floor.
Even before Reader and Waldstreicher put their bill forward, other parents in Maryland sought support after giving birth to a stillborn baby.
In 2022, Petit of Anne Arundel County contacted her representative, then-Senator Sarah Elfreth, after losing her daughter, Ava, at 20 weeks in July 2020. Her grief, difficulty finding support, and concern for other families prompted her to reach out to Elfreth.
“I thought about all of the families who couldn’t afford most of the things we were lucky enough to afford,” Petit said. “It would be so dismissive when you get to tax time and only living children get counted. It’s not only the financial aspect, it’s another time where you’re told that your child wasn’t real.”
Parents of stillborn children seek parity with other parents. If their child had taken one breath, they would have had the benefits of a child tax deduction on the following year’s tax return. And when families want to bury their child, it is at their own expense. Medical staff issue a certificate of fetal death, which serves as a statistic for the state’s vital records but in no way acknowledges the birth and death of a human being.
Approximately 1 in 144 babies are stillborn in the state of Maryland, affecting about 500 families in the state per year. According to the Maryland Department of Health, Black mothers experience stillbirth at twice the rate of White and Hispanic mothers.
This disparity prompted Corrine Heiliger, who had two stillborn children, to begin a support group for Black women and women of color who have experienced pregnancy loss and stillborn children. Heiliger, a therapist before her stillbirth in 2014 at 37 weeks, specialized in perinatal loss following her experience.
“Black women often make less money and are often in a lower socioeconomic status, so this tax credit will be an equity issue, offering some relief for families that had the unexpected expenses,” Heiliger said.
“They told us that there was no heartbeat. We were completely in shock,” said Heiliger of her daughter, Clara.
While Heiliger had two children, she couldn’t reuse their baby clothing and cribs because they were older, and she had given away their things. So in 2014 she started over: she purchased a new car seat, installing it in her car weeks before giving birth, and spent thousands of dollars on items like a crib, clothing, and decorations for a new nursery.
And when that nursery was set up ready for Clara, the grief was compounded.
“I couldn’t even walk in the nursery for a few weeks,” Heiliger said. “It’s a really painful thing to come home to a nursery empty of the baby it was intended for.”
Heiliger told legislators at a bill hearing that she testified because she wanted to ensure other parents have the opportunity to see that their child is acknowledged by the state as a real person.
“I think even from an emotional standpoint, having something that acknowledges your loss would be humanizing and meaningful,” said Heiliger.