You should not have to work for a champion of paid leave to get it.
Last May, a leaked draft opinion showed that the Supreme Court was about to overturn Roe v. Wade. It was something advocates had feared and anticipated was about to happen, but the leak caught us all by surprise. As Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.)’s digital media director, I should have been hard at work responding to the leak and spreading her message in defense of Roe online.
But I was not. At one of the most urgent moments of my career, I was out on paid medical leave.
I have absolutely no memory of the accident that landed me in the hospital that Friday night. I was told much later that while I was riding my scooter, I had hit a loose patch of sand in the road, lost control and slammed chin-first into the road. I broke my jaw in five places, fractured my right arm and had a grade-three concussion.
My recovery would take weeks, but I was lucky to be alive. And I was damn lucky to be working for Kirsten Gillibrand because I was, without question, going to get paid medical leave. I never even had to ask for it. By the time I checked out of the hospital Saturday, the senator and our chief of staff had each texted me, wishing me well and telling me to focus on my recovery. I felt terrible, but I reassured myself that it was not supposed to be a busy time at work.
Famous last words, right? That Monday, the draft Dobbs decision leaked, and all hell broke loose. As a citizen and a woman, I was horrified. But as a digital media director, my mind was in overdrive. I knew exactly what I needed to be doing in that moment: drafting posts, working on video scripts, creating graphics and prepping livestreams.
But I could not do a single. damn. thing. You cannot push yourself through a grade-three concussion, and my doctors had been very clear that if I did not give my brain time to heal properly, I could end up with chronic, debilitating health issues. I was totally banned from all screens for at least a week. My job is nothing but screen time, so I was completely sidelined.
I stayed home and tried to focus on my recovery—which is just a BS way of saying that I stressed about all the important work everyone else was doing while I was utterly useless. There is never a convenient time to smash your face into the pavement, but I had picked a spectacularly inconvenient one.
But despite my self-pitying, my coworkers were getting the job done without me.
That is what we have seen across the country in states that have already implemented their own paid leave programs. When employees have access to paid leave, performance and productivity can actually improve.
Consider what would have happened had I been forced to come back to work before I was fully recovered. Maybe I would have managed to do a few hours of work—but I could have lost days, weeks, maybe even months of future productivity to debilitating post-concussion symptoms like chronic migraines. A few weeks of grace saved me a lifetime of pain.
The irony of being on paid leave while abortion rights were about to be decimated was not lost on me either. When I was finally back at work and the Supreme Court had officially issued their Dobbs decision, Sen. Gillibrand asked us to look into whether any of the states that had banned or were likely to ban abortion also guaranteed paid leave. None did.
They would force you to have a child, but would not guarantee you any paid time off to give birth or care for that newborn.
Everyone, at some point, will need paid family or medical leave. If you think you are the exception, trust me, you will realize at some point while you are cartwheeling into the asphalt that you are not. Sometimes you face circumstances completely outside of your control.
If you were in a state like Florida or Texas, where abortion bans have resulted in people being denied care for life-threatening pregnancy complications, you could be hospitalized for a health crisis caused by their draconian laws and lose your job, paycheck and health insurance right when you needed it most.
Americans, at their core, understand that, and we want to support each other through these challenges. Total strangers ran to my side after I crashed. Friends and family supported me through my recovery. My coworkers and my boss prioritized my health and wellbeing, even when there was urgent work to be done.
One year later, I am fully recovered and back in the fight. I am very lucky to work for Sen. Gillibrand, but you should not have to work for the leading champion of paid leave to get it. No one should ever have to make that impossible choice between their health and their paycheck. We need to pass national paid family and medical leave.
Up next:
U.S. democracy is at a dangerous inflection point—from the demise of abortion rights, to a lack of pay equity and parental leave, to skyrocketing maternal mortality, and attacks on trans health. Left unchecked, these crises will lead to wider gaps in political participation and representation. For 50 years, Ms. has been forging feminist journalism—reporting, rebelling and truth-telling from the front-lines, championing the Equal Rights Amendment, and centering the stories of those most impacted. With all that’s at stake for equality, we are redoubling our commitment for the next 50 years. In turn, we need your help, Support Ms. today with a donation—any amount that is meaningful to you. For as little as $5 each month, you’ll receive the print magazine along with our e-newsletters, action alerts, and invitations to Ms. Studios events and podcasts. We are grateful for your loyalty and ferocity.
