Pregnant people in New York would have 40 hours of paid leave to attend prenatal medical appointments under a new proposal by Gov. Kathy Hochul after the state’s legislative session kicked off this week.
The Democrat’s plan to expand the state’s paid family leave policy, which would need to be approved by the state Legislature, aims to expand access to high-quality prenatal care and prevent maternal and infant deaths in New York, an issue that especially affects low-income and minority communities.
The U.S. infant mortality rate, a measure of how many babies die before they reach their first birthday, is worse than other high-income countries, which experts have attributed to poverty, inadequate prenatal care and other possibilities. The U.S. rate rose 3% in 2022 — the largest increase in two decades, according to a 2023 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The proposal above isn’t about paid parental leave which New York already has (and it’s even more flexible than that actually and can be applied to other situations besides a new child), it’s about adding additional paid time off while pregnant to help with prenatal care appointments and things.
Here’s more info on New York’s current paid leave laws if curious: https://paidfamilyleave.ny.gov/
They’re already more flexible than just parental leave, but glad they’re adding some time while pregnant as another situation of guaranteed paid leave.
It’s still pretty sad that the max I see in that table is 12 weeks, and even that is only in a few states.
It’s certainly better than nothing, but even the most generous US states are pretty barbaric compared to most European countries (at least the ones I’m familiar with)