INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (WOWO):  A Senate judiciary committee on Wednesday approved a bill allowing courts to make fathers pay for a wider range of pregnancy and childbirth expenses, but committee members said they were actively working on changes.  The pregnancy expenses bill was spawned as a proposal would have let expectant mothers claim child support beginning at conception, in the wake of Indiana’s much-litigated abortion ban.

But Rep. Elizabeth Rowray, R-Yorktown, previously introduced changes scaling that back among legal fears. Indiana law already allows court orders to include half of costs for prenatal and postnatal care, delivery, and hospitalization. The amended House Bill 1009 would add two more options: “other necessary expenses” related to birth, and “postpartum” expenses. Experts previously testified in the House’s version of the committee that they feared the broad language would lead to “creative lawyering” and legal fights.

Sen. Aaron Freeman, R-Indianapolis, told Inside Indiana Business he wanted to work on a second reading amendment limiting costs.  “The dad should pay half,” Freeman said. “But when they don’t have any say, per se, in what crib is bought — the $1,000 crib or the $500 crib — that is where I start to have some challenges.”

Rowray assured other lawmakers concerned about which parent gets the windfall from a resale that carseats, cribs and other items have expiration dates and shouldn’t be used long-term regardless. And for items like clothing that can be resold, Rowray herself said a garage sale earned her “pennies on the dollar what I paid.”

The committee still advanced the bill unanimously.