The bill would give three days paid leave after suffering the loss
A new bill has been tabled in the Senate to grant paid leave to people losing their pregnancy.
Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) Introduced the Support Through Loss Act in an effort to help families have time to cope with the loss of a child without worrying about not taking time off work to heal. Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) Is co-sponsoring the bill. Under the proposed legislation, workers would be granted a minimum of three days of paid leave after miscarriage, failed in vitro fertilization, failed adoption or surrogacy, or a medical diagnosis impacting on fertility.
As many of us know, the road to parenthood is not always easy. Today, @RepPressley and I present the Support Through Loss Act to support families across the country who are suffering from the unimaginable. pic.twitter.com/AumdVaORMn
– Tammy Duckworth (@SenDuckworth) July 20, 2021
New Zealand broke new ground in this area earlier this year, unanimously passing a pro-family policy allowing three days of paid bereavement leave for parents who have miscarried.
“Different families will face pregnancy loss in their own way, but they deserve the opportunity to deal with it. People deserve the time to deal with this, ”said Duckworth The HuffPost. “Some people may need to grieve, others may need time to just regroup and formulate a plan to start over. But the key element here is time.
Today, @SenDuckworth and @RepPressley introduced the Loss Support Act to help families who face devastating setbacks when trying to expand their families. Whether it’s a pregnancy loss or a failed adoption, everyone deserves to take the time to grieve and heal. pic.twitter.com/hnxJfAXaST
– National partnership (@NPWF) July 20, 2021
Duckworth has spoken openly about her difficulties getting pregnant over the years, including a miscarriage. “I have been through so many failed IVF cycles where I had hope and it would fail. Each of these cycles has been devastating for me and my husband, but me in particular,” Duckworth said, sharing that she had miscarried while posing as a senator. “It was quite devastating having to go through this [miscarriage] process and not have time to deal with it.
Our daughter, Piper, was stillborn in 2019. Thank you. @SenDuckworth & @RepPressley for the introduction of the law on loss support. It is high time we funded research and public education on miscarriages and miscarriages, in addition to paid time off for grieving families. https://t.co/nARGDhfwIq
– Dan Lewis (@danlewisIL) July 20, 2021
In the United States today, there is no mandatory paid bereavement leave. Parents who lose a child can use FMLA leave, but it is unpaid leave, preventing many families from using it. There is also no requirement for paid leave after the birth or adoption of a baby, unless it is unpaid and qualifies by the FMLA, which gives parents up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave after birth. Even then, there are guidelines such as how long you work for a company, the number of employees in the company, and whether a working parent can afford 12 weeks of unpaid leave.
According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, it is estimated that up to “26% of all pregnancies end in miscarriage and up to 10% of clinically recognized pregnancies”, which does not account for other losses. that this bill would support.
If passed, the Support Through Loss Act will also allocate $ 45 million per year to the National Institutes of Health to support pregnancy loss research programs.
