A conservative Republican lawmaker wants to expand the child tax credit to include pregnant women as well as parents. With only a few months left in the legislative session, the bill may not pass this year, but its sponsor said it will likely be brought back to the table.

House Bill 654 would allow the definition of “dependent” for tax purposes to include any child conceived by the taxpayer or his or her spouse during the tax year. If the parents file separate returns, the conceived child can only be claimed as a dependent by his or her mother. The bill is called the Strategic Tax Opportunities for Raising Kids (STORK Act).

Rep. Gary Click (R-Vickery) said this is not a step toward recognizing the legal personhood of embryos or fetuses, although he supports it. But he acknowledged that this is where the idea came from.

“Of course you know how I feel about that, but I don’t think that’s the case here,” Click said. “This is an acknowledgment that this child – you can call it an embryo, you can call it whatever you want, I’ll call it a child – is economically dependent on you.”

Click continued, “When I introduced the Personhood Act, some people said to me, I think most of them were sarcastic and skeptical. They said, ‘Can we deduct them from our taxes?’ And I thought, ‘Well, you know, why not? I think that should be something we can all agree on.'”

Click said he would be shocked if the bill, which he said was “not very specific,” were passed this year, since lawmakers are not scheduled to return to session until after the November election. And the calendar for the session is full, with hundreds of bills already proposed. Click said he introduced the bill to start a discussion on the idea, which he said simply recognizes that spending on children begins before birth.

Click said he didn’t know exactly how much the bill would be, but added that since it’s a deduction and not a credit, “it lowers your taxable income and it’s just less money that you have to pay taxes on, so it’s not going to be huge.”

HB 654 has seven co-signers, including some of the most conservative Republicans in the House.