Kari Lake Floats 'Baby Bonus' to Lower US Abortion Rate

Senate candidate Kari Lake has suggested American women should receive a "baby bonus" if they have children as a way of discouraging abortion, praising a Hungarian plan that sees women with four or more children exempt from income tax.

The firebrand Republican was speaking to local network Arizona's Family after announcing in October she is running for an Arizona U.S. Senate seat, potentially setting up a three-way battle against independent incumbent Kyrsten Sinema and Democrat Ruben Gallego.

During the interview, Lake was asked about a bid by campaigners to hold a vote on enshrining abortion rights in the Arizona constitution in November 2024, coinciding with her potential Senate battle and the presidential election.

Lake insisted abortion is an issue for individual states but said new legislation could be introduced to support women financially to discourage the practice.

"I wish that every woman when she found herself pregnant would be able to have the baby, I really do, and I think there should be exceptions for incest, rape and the health of the mother. Ronald Reagan felt that way. Many, many Republicans feel that way," she said.

Referencing a conversation with Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a popular figure with some American conservatives, Lake said: "I said 'I am astounded that you never changed a law, you didn't change one abortion law, and you brought down the number of abortions. You cut them in half. How did that happen?'"

"He said we started supporting families, we encouraged families, we encouraged people to get married and have children and have families and we gave a baby bonus, a tax break when you got married, when you had a baby, women in Hungary who have four babies never pay taxes again. We offer a lot of tax breaks to big corporations, but we rarely do anything to help families and families are struggling."

Hungary passed a law in 2019 exempting all women who have raised at least four children from income tax for life as part of his "Family Protection Action Plan" which was designed to increase the country's stuttering birth rate amidst Orbán's hostility to widespread immigration.

Asked whether she'd seek to legislate on abortion at a national level if elected to the Senate, Lake replied: "I have said since the beginning, this isn't a change in my stance, that abortion is a state's issue. Roe v. Wade came down, we were all waiting for that to happen and bring it back to the states. The states will decide, the people of those states will decide."

Lake also suggested some women are having abortions because of the state of the U.S. economy.

"Joe Biden has destroyed an economy that was so good, he's destroyed it, that women are walking into abortion clinics saying 'I can't afford my baby,'" she said. "They have an abortion, they get out, and they find Joe Biden wants to send another $10 billion to Ukraine. That's despicable. So we need to do better, let women know there are options."

Lake ran as the Republican candidate in the Arizona gubernatorial election in November 2022, losing out to Democrat Katie Hobbs. Lake, a passionate Donald Trump ally, is still refusing to concede and insists the contest was rigged against her though this claim has been rejected repeatedly in the courts.