Dave McCormick wants to help families pay for IVF, ban most kids from social media

U.S. Senate candidate Dave McCormick announced Wednesday that he’s proposing $15,000 in tax credits for fertility treatment and vowed to oppose any restrictions on such treatments.

Speaking to a gathering primarily of Republicans in Delaware County, McCormick sought to present himself as a commonsense, pro-family Republican who could successfully champion myriad policies from child care to social media.

Just days after appearing alongside former President Donald Trump at a rally in Philadelphia, McCormick promised to focus on “problem solving over ideology” as he appealed to voters in Delaware County, where the electorate has moved to the left since Trump’s 2016 election and will be key to McCormick’s race against the incumbent Democratic senator, Bob Casey, and the presidential election.

“I think that any candidate that stands up for family is going to resonate very, very well in Delaware County because Delaware County is all about that,” said Frank Agovino, the chair of the county’s Republican Party.

McCormick’s new “pro-family” agenda comes following the two-year anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning the constitutional right to an abortion — a ruling the Pennsylvania Democratic Party was quick to point to in response to McCormick’s new agenda.

“Two years ago, David McCormick celebrated the Supreme Court decision that ripped away women’s right to make their own personal decisions about their bodies. In the Senate,” TaNisha Cameron, a spokeswoman for the party, said. “McCormick would be a vote for a national abortion ban with no exceptions for rape or incest – and that’s why Pennsylvania voters will reject him in November.”

During his first Senate run in 2022, McCormick said he supported banning abortion except when a mother’s life is at risk. Now, his campaign website says he opposes a national abortion ban and supports exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother.

Republicans have grappled with how to effectively message around reproductive rights in the last two years, as voters have repeatedly shown a support for abortion rights and state-level action across the country has bred fear over access to fertility treatment and contraceptives.

McCormick, speaking Wednesday to a crowd of GOP activists and likely voters, pivoted to policies that don’t directly address abortion rights but aim to help those who want or already have children.

“I’ll fight for every family in our commonwealth at every stage of life,” McCormick said. “We need a leader who’s going to bring real change.”

Here are three key pieces of his agenda:

McCormick is proposing a $15,000 refundable tax credit for fertility treatment, including in vitro fertilization and vowed to oppose any legislative effort to restrict such treatments.

He said he would seek to make the tax credit available to families twice a year, meaning families could be eligible for $30,000 annually, so that expensive fertility treatments could be more accessible to people struggling to have children.

“I can’t think of a better pro-family, pro-woman, pro-business policy than this one,” he said.

IVF became a national political issue earlier this year, after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that embryos are babies and IVF procedures were temporarily halted in the state. Democrats have seized on the issue and have cast Republicans as anti-IVF, pointing to the Alabama decision as a consequence of overturning Roe v. Wade and warning that similar scenarios could play out in other states. McCormick’s tax credit proposal represents the continued push by GOP candidates to position themselves as supportive of fertility treatments in light of that criticism.

McCormick also said Wednesday that he would propose making an existing federal adoption tax credit fully refundable and increasing the popular federal child tax credit.

Citing concerns about low test scores in Pennsylvania schools, McCormick proposed establishing a federal tax credit for donations to organizations that provide scholarships for private schools.

Lawmakers in Harrisburg already set aside more than $470 million each year for two tax credit programs. They’re also debating whether to create a school voucher program, which would send funds directly to families in low-performing districts, as part of this year’s budget due by June 30.

Democrats have largely opposed vouchers and are critical of existing tax credit programs for private school scholarships because of concerns about equity and funding losses for public schools.

McCormick’s proposal would not directly provide vouchers to students but would aim to increase funding for organizations that provide private school scholarships by allowing taxpayers to deduct donations to such groups from their federal taxes.

Virtual school during the COVID-19 pandemic, McCormick said, caused many parents to realize they were unhappy with curriculum at their child’s school. These scholarships, he said, give them an out while creating competition between schools.

“That competition will be great for everybody but it’s gonna be disruptive as hell. And it needs to be,” he said.

Comparing the risks social media can pose for youth to those of alcohol and cigarettes, McCormick proposed banning anyone under the age of 16 from social media sites. He did not outline how such a ban would be enforced.

Social media, McCormick said, has reached a point where it poses an unacceptably high risk to minors through cyber bullying, scams, pornography, and online predators.

Just as the government sets an age for access to alcohol and tobacco, he said, it should set an age limit for access to these sites.

“Getting the government involved in regulating access to information is a slippery slope but I think we’re hitting a tipping point,” he said.