Several progressive cities have started discreetly increasing their paid leave practices to include women who get abortions. Last month, the Portland City Council voted to extend its three-day paid bereavement leave to include women who have experienced “pregnancy loss,” which encompasses abortion, miscarriage, and stillbirth. The Pittsburgh City Council passed a similar measure just one month earlier.
In September, the Boston City Council also expanded its 12-week paid parental leave program to cover women and their partners following an abortion. Boston councilwoman Lydia Edwards, who co-sponsored the expansion bill, called it “an acknowledgement in modernizing our parental leave laws.”
According to the Washington Free Beacon, all three plans got unanimous approval. The mayors of all three cities and every member of the city councils in Boston and Pittsburgh are Democrats. Members of the Oregon city council are not affiliated with any political party.
As the Supreme Court prepares to hear a historic challenge to Roe v. Wade, Democratic lawmakers throughout the country are scrambling to expand access to abortion. Illinois and California each recently approved measures that allow for teenagers to get abortions without notifying their parents. In September, the House of Representatives approved a bill that would codify Roe into law.
Elizabeth Nash of the Guttmacher Institute said the paid leave proposals are the first of their kind. She noted that bereavement leave for miscarriages and stillbirths is rare and that she had never heard of policies that include abortion, “This is just incredibly uncommon,” she added.
President of the American Principles Project, Terry Schilling, said Democrats who support these regulations invalidate their core abortion arguments. He told the Free Beacon, “Supporters of abortion often claim it is a medical procedure like any other and that it shouldn’t be treated any differently than typical health care. So it’s somewhat surprising to see these cities categorizing abortion as a loss of pregnancy. Why should someone need time away from work if abortion were simply a routine operation?”
Democrats may seek similar leave increases at the federal level soon. In July, Democrat Representative Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois introduced a measure to compel companies to provide a three-day paid leave for women who lose their pregnancies. However, they did not specify if this leave would apply to women who had abortions.
