In Boston, Pittsburgh and Portland, Oregon, pregnancy loss ‘bereavement’ policies have been extended to include elective abortions.
BOSTON — Three U.S. cities that offer paid leave to city employees after the birth of a child have recently extended that benefit to abortion.
In Boston, a city employee who has an abortion can now get up to 12 weeks of paid leave, thanks to a policy approved earlier this fall.
In Portland, Oregon and Pittsburgh, the benefit is three days.
The new approach has led to a disagreement among supporters of legal abortion. Boston City Councilor Lydia Edwards, who proposed the policy change, said she has heard from some who worry that new approach suggests that there might be something wrong or traumatic about abortion.
Edwards, the prime sponsor of the policy and a supporter of legal abortion herself, acknowledged those concerns during a public meeting this past summer.
“This is for folks who are pro-choice and were concerned about a stigma being put on termination, or a sense that it is unhealthy or causes pain or causes immense amount of emotional turmoil. That is not the goal of this,“ Edwards said July 13 during a meeting of the council’s Committee on Government Operations.
She added that the new ordinance is not trying to “in any way provide additional stigma … about the termination of a pregnancy — in any way, shape, or form.”
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