‘Economic Violence’: Dems Hold Presser Demanding Paid Time Off For Periods

Democrat lawmakers are pushing a federal bill to make businesses pay for female workers to take time off for period pain — an issue they’ve framed through the lens of “economic violence.”

The bill, called the Reproductive Healthcare Leave Act, would require employers to provide up to 12 days of paid leave per year for female health issues, including period pain and menopause symptoms, and also covers abortion and vasectomies.  

Notably, the legislation would hit incredibly small businesses, too, even if the owner has as few as five employees. And it’s backed by abortion giant Planned Parenthood. 

Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ), who attended the presser last month, said women are tired of being told to “tough it out” when it comes to their period and suggested the issue is also about ethnicity.

“While the system is broken for all women, it is in a full blown crisis for Latinas,” the Democrat said. “The nationwide 17% of Latinos lack health insurance — more than double the rate of white Americans. Over 20% of adult Latinos in Arizona have been forced to completely avoid medical care because they simply cannot afford it.”

“Latinas are the backbone of our workforce, and yet they’re disproportionately concentrated in low wage and hourly jobs that lack flexible sick leave,” she continued. “Forcing a worker to choose between paying her rent or losing a day’s pay to recover from a grueling gynecological procedure is not a choice; it’s an economic violence.”

Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ), who is sponsoring the Reproductive Healthcare Leave Act, recalled during the presser the pain she’s experienced from her period.

“Today, we are here to talk about women’s pain and how long it’s been overlooked,” Ansari said. “Like most women, I have a very personal experience with reproductive health pain.”

“In the summer of 2015, while starting my career in New York City, I woke up on floor of my local bodega drenched in sweat being dragged into an ambulance,” she continued. “Two male paramedics hovered over me and continued to ask me if I was pregnant. I had passed out from period pain. Even now, every month, I have days where it feels like barbed wire is tightening inside me. I’ve taken 2,000 milligrams of ibuprofen in twenty-four hours and still been in tears from the pain. Often end up on the bathroom floor in the fetal position, crying, moaning, or vomiting. Still, I put on a blazer and gone to work.” 

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) is also backing the bill. “I know that many of you understand that we’re sick and tired of women having to be expected to say, ‘suck it up,’ or still perform at the highest level,” Tlaib said at the presser. “They’re expected to show up to work despite incredibly painful periods and sit through meetings after being denied competent health care. And for far too long, women’s pain has been minimized, ignored, dismissed, and even politicized.”

As highlighted by some online, Democrats like Tlaib are advocates for so-called trans rights, or allowing males who identify as female in women’s spaces. In fact, Tlaib once said a bill aimed at protecting girls sports was effectively “legalizing discrimination.”

However, for this bill, the definition of women has reverted back to reality and biology.