If you work for one public relations firm based in Waltham, Massachusetts, it’s possible to receive up to 20 weeks of paid time off for having an abortion.
Inkhouse, which employs more than 100 people, now offers a paid leave policy that covers pregnancy loss – which includes miscarriage, stillbirth, and elective abortion. The policy applies to both women and men. The policy went into effect at the start of this year, according to the company’s web site.
The company’s benefits page says that it provides its workers “20 weeks paid parental leave and a flex month upon return” for paid parental leave. It also says that the company offers “Two weeks of paid leave for those who experience the heartbreak of miscarriage or pregnancy loss in the first 20 weeks.” However, if the pregnancy loss — including an elective abortion — happens after 20 weeks, it says that “our standard parental leave applies.”
The company explained the policy in further detail in a blog post on January 19, 2022, using the acronym “PTO” for “Paid Time Off”:
For many years at Inkhouse we have had unlimited vacation and PTO and encourage our employees to take time when they need it. But miscarriage is such a taboo topic that we want to be upfront with our employees about taking the time they need to recover from a pregnancy loss. Now, we are introducing a new policy that offers employees two weeks of paid leave for those who experience miscarriage or pregnancy loss, including abortions, in the first 20 weeks. After that timeframe, our standard parental leave policy applies. It’s a benefit we hope not many of our employees take advantage of but there if they need it.
Massachusetts Family Institute communications director Mary Ellen Siegler told NewBostonPost that the policy creates a false equivalency and normalizes violence against the unborn.
“This policy equates the tragic loss of a baby through miscarriage with the intentional killing of a baby through abortion,” Siegler said by email. “A miscarriage and an elective abortion are not the same. Policies like this devalue human life, normalize the violence of abortion, and ultimately harm women. It is well established that women who choose abortion suffer emotional trauma they have to manage for the rest of their lives. Also, it makes no sense that they would give an employee parental leave after ending the life of their child through abortion, since they are choosing not to become a parent.”
Inkhouse is not the first Massachusetts employer to offer its workers paid abortion leave. The city of Boston started offering a paid abortion leave benefit to its employees in September 2021, as NewBostonPost was first to report. The city’s policy provides up to 12 weeks of paid leave for pregnancy loss – including abortion – to both women and men. It’s the same benefit offered for childbirth. Every member of the city council voted in favor of it.
The city’s paid leave scheme offers employees 100 percent of their base wages during the first four weeks of leave, then 75 percent for the next four weeks, and 50 percent for the last four weeks of leave.
Of the Boston paid abortion leave policy, Massachusetts Citizens for Life executive director Patricia Stewart told NewBostonpost that the move surprisingly reinforced a pro-life view of abortion.
“Ironically, the grant of abortion leave reinforces the pro-life view that abortion is a serious medical choice with potentially life-altering consequences for a woman’s physical, emotional, and psychological health,” Stewart told NewBostonPost in an email message. “Liberals’ acknowledgement of this truth may have the unintended effect of causing more women to rethink an abortion decision and save a baby’s life. Or, so we can hope.”
A spokesman for Inkhouse could not be reached for comment on Saturday, Sunday, or Monday this week.
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(Courtesy of Wikimedia) 
