The idea started as several days of bereavement leave for parents who lost a child to stillbirth. At some point someone added coverage for abortion. Now it's 12 weeks of parental leave:
One thing that’s important to note about the Pittsburgh and Portland policies is that they are classified as “bereavement leave.” This must be confusing for the “clump of cells” crowd, because if no actual person was lost, of what is the sufferer bereft? But to the rest of us, this policy is, again, compassionate and humane. I’m not here to judge any woman who decides she needs to terminate a pregnancy, and I pray for her spiritual and emotional healing. Also, like a natural miscarriage, an abortion causes physical and emotional trauma. A few days’ rest and recovery (and maybe even prayer) is well advised.
But we all know that “progress” usually involves taking a reasonable idea and driving it right off a cliff.
I will give some of the pro-choice crowd more slack on this, among those (are there any left?) who truly do believe that the mother's assignment of personhood is binding. I used to know a few of those in the 80's. Those might support parental leave policies in those circumstances.
ReplyDeleteI assume that some small percentage of abortions are unwanted, eg for ectopic pregnancies. These might be as or even more traumatic than a stillbirth. There could be intense feelings of guilt as well as loss in those cases.
ReplyDeleteCertainly the bereavement leave--several days--could make sense, but 12 weeks of parental leave? Parental leave is not 12 weeks to get over a loss, it's 12 weeks to take care of an infant.
ReplyDeleteYes, I missed that aspect. That would entail three months of paid leave potentially at will.
ReplyDeleteFair
ReplyDelete