LONDON – Three days of paid work for parents who live the tragic experience of a miscarriage or an unborn child who died before or during childbirth. It is a new law of New Zealand, as reported by the New York Times, and according to local legislators it is the first in the world of its kind.
“It will allow women and partners who have experienced similar trauma not to have to ignore it and go back to work soon after,” says the Labor MP Ginny Andersen who presented the bill, “up to this moment we had to show that we are always stoic and move forward, this legislation instead recognizes the right to stop a moment after a similar pain, take time, and recover from the psychological and emotional. In this way we protect the dignity of women ”.
In reality this law extends something that was already foreseen by Wellington but, until now, only in the case of miscarriage or perinatal death from the twentieth week onwards. Now instead, as claimed by the government in charge of Jacinda Ardern and from her Labor Party, it will apply at all times of pregnancy and for both parents. The measure should definitively become law in the coming weeks. “We are the first nation to apply it at all times before giving birth,” Andersen emphasized. For example, in Australia these paid days off apply from the twelfth week, in the UK from the 24th week, while the United States does not have clear legislation in this regard.
However, the new law of Jacinda Ardern’s government does not apply in the case of voluntary abortion, which among other things in New Zealand was decriminalized only last year, as the American newspaper recalls.
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