New Zealand Not the First to Legalize Paid Leave For Miscarriages

Megan Healey

News

29th March 2021

New Zealand Not the First to Legalize Paid Leave For Miscarriages

Numerous other countries hold similar policies (Getty Images).

The Claim

New Zealand is the first country to pass a law providing bereavement leave for miscarriages and stillbirths.

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Emerging story

Last week, mainstream news platforms such as The Washington Post, CNN, and the BBC picked up a story that New Zealand had passed a law that would provide paid leave for miscarriages. Headlines accompanied the news with claims that New Zealand was one of the first countries to do so. While most journalists were careful to acknowledge that the law was “among the first” instead of the first, some readers assumed the latter, and praised New Zealand for setting an example for the world.

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Other social media users began to assert that these stories were misleading, and that reports overlooked other countries who already uphold similar laws.

Misbar’s Analysis

While it is true that New Zealand is among the first countries to pass legislation granting paid bereavement leave for miscarriages, these headlines appear to have misled readers by presenting the story as such. New Zealand is not the first (or even the second) country to implement such a policy, but certain details do distinguish their new policy from the others.

As pointed out by the above Instagram user, The Philippines offers 60 days of paid leave for those who experience a miscarriage or have an emergency termination. This was part of a larger expansion of maternity benefits enacted in early 2019. Even before that, India’s 1961 Maternity Benefit Act entitled employees to paid leave at the rate of maternity benefits for a period of six weeks immediately following the day of the miscarriage. In South Africa, women are also entitled to six weeks of maternity leave after a miscarriage or stillbirth. The law adds that there is no distinction between still and live births in the granting of maternity benefits, if the pregnancy has lasted at least 24 weeks.

Many other countries have their own versions of bereavement leave, and in the U.S. it varies by state and workplace. Leave after a miscarriage is often categorized as sick leave if it is granted, or may count as a temporary disability. New Zealand’s new legislature aims to not only address any physical demands of a miscarriage, but also emotional. Labor party MP Ginny Andersen, who initiated the bill, told Reuters, “The bill will give women and their partners time to come to terms with their loss without having to tap into sick leave. Because their grief is not a sickness, it is a loss. And loss takes time.”

In New Zealand, employers were already required to provide paid leave in the event of a miscarriage after 20 weeks or more. This new legislation expands that leave to anyone who loses a pregnancy at any point. It’s also granted to couples, not only the mother, and it applies to parents trying to have a child through adoption or surrogacy. In those specific respects, New Zealand does appear to be the first of its kind.