Message
I’m writing to ask you to make New York a better place for people to give birth and raise a family.
People should be able to take time off from work when they need to in order to have a healthy pregnancy, or because they have suffered a miscarriage or stillbirth. And they should be able to take that time off without fear of losing their jobs. But New York’s medical leave program doesn’t include job protection, and it doesn’t provide enough money to meet anyone’s basic family needs.
Meanwhile, some hospitals are actually criminalizing pregnancy by secretly drug testing pregnant women and their newborns. These tests typically serve no medical purpose, but their consequences can be dire.
You should support and protect women, parents, and pregnant New Yorkers. You can do so by supporting two important policies in the FY2025 state budget.
- Modernizing Temporary Disability Insurance
Our state’s Temporary Disability Insurance program provides benefits to New Yorkers who need time off from work to tend to their own health needs, including pregnancy. But it doesn’t ensure they aren’t fired during their leave, and it has been capped at $170 a week since 1989, which is far below the cost of living in 2024.
This current reality often hurts Black, Brown, and Indigenous people the most: they are more likely to experience medical racism and become sick or die as a result of pregnancy or birth. These New Yorkers would especially benefit from job-protected time off when necessary to keep themselves and their pregnancies healthy, without the fear of falling into poverty.
Adding insult to injury, a worker who needs time off to recover must make impossible choices because of our state’s barebones Temporary Disability Insurance. Yet under New York's Paid Family Leave program, their partner is eligible for job-protected time off and a livable wage while they take care of them.
You must support workers who need to take time off to attend to their own health needs, including during pregnancy, or because of pregnancy loss or the loss of a newborn. S.2821-B/A.4053-B is the best way to improve New York’s Temporary Disability Insurance program. This bill would raise the Temporary Disability Insurance benefit cap to match Paid Family Leave's more generous benefit cap. The legislation would also change the wage-replacement structure for both programs to make it more likely that low-income New Yorkers can use both Temporary Disability Insurance and Paid Family Leave.
- End Secret Drug Testing of Pregnant People and Newborns
Some New York hospitals perform medically unnecessary drug tests on pregnant New Yorkers and their newborns without their knowledge or permission. These tests, and even responses to verbal substance use screenings, can result in medical staff reporting families to Child Protective Services, regardless of whether there is an actual resulting risk to the health of the baby. Yet a positive test can lead to traumatic investigations and, in some cases, family separation, both of which cause irreparable harm. This violation of trust makes some people avoid vital medical care. Not surprisingly, involuntary drug testing during pregnancy most frequently targets people of color, who already face significantly higher rates of maternal death.
The Informed Consent Act (S.320-B/A.109-B) would require health care providers to obtain written and oral consent from pregnant and perinatal people before drug testing them or their newborns. It would also require them to obtain informed consent from a pregnant person before conducting a verbal drug screening.
You have the opportunity to make New York a better and safer place to give birth and raise a family by supporting these two measures in the FY2025 state budget. I am counting on you to help pregnant and parenting New Yorkers thrive.
