They Paved Paradise, They Put Up a (Natalist) Parking Lot
Sacramento legislators are bored again:
California lawmakers are considering granting special parking privileges to women in the final three months of pregnancy and the first two months after birth.
Assemblyman Chuck DeVore's bill would qualify pregnant women for "temporarily disabled" parking placards from the Department of Motor Vehicles.
As it turns out, pregnant people don't actually like being called "disabled."
Helen Grieco, executive director of the California chapter of the National Organization for Women, said AB 1940 inadvertently could send the wrong societal message.
"It's very much a normal part of a woman's life – we have children," Grieco said. "So we've always been troubled by framing pregnancy as a disability."
Sacramentan Sarah Nolan, 30, said she was granted disabled parking privileges years ago because of complications that required "modified bed rest." She does not support awarding placards to all pregnant women, however.
"It's what our bodies were made to do," Nolan said of pregnancy. "You become as big as a house, and you get to moan and complain about it, but that kind of goes with the territory. It's not disability."
DeVore's best defense is probably this classic Onion article.