Kirsten Gillibrand’s ‘Family Bill of Rights’ proves how little support American families have

[Editor’s note: Motherly is committed to covering all relevant presidential candidate plans as we approach the 2020 election. We are making efforts to get information from all candidates. Motherly does not endorse any political party or candidate. We stand with and for mothers and advocate for solutions that will reduce maternal stress and benefit women, families and the country.]

We’ve said it here at Motherly many times: The majority of moms just don’t feel like society supports them. Our 2019 State of Motherhood survey found a whopping 85% of mothers feel this way, up from 74% last year.

We’ve wondered if anyone is listening, but the race for the Democratic primary proves many politicians are.

This week Kirsten Gillibrand, a mom of two herself, announced her new economic policy platform known as the Family Bill of Rights.

In a Medium post published Wednesday, Gillibrand explained that she believes Americans have the right to a safe and healthy pregnancy, the right to give birth or adopt a child, the right to personally care for those children in their infancy and access health care for them, the right to a safe and affordable nursery, and the right to affordable child care and early education before kindergarten.

She’s proposing a lot here. Like Senator Elizabeth Warren before her, Gillibrand points out that the “U.S. has the highest rate of pregnancy-related deaths in the industrialized world, and black women are 3–4 times more likely to die during or after childbirth than white women.”

Like Warren, she plans to make America a safer place to give birth. She also plans to “require insurance companies to cover treatments like IVF” to make sure that reproductive medicine isn’t out of reach for families. She wants to make sure all families, regardless of sexual orientation, race or income level can welcome a child.

That’s why one of her promises is to ensure taxpayer-funded adoption agencies can’t discriminate against potential parents, and why she plans to “provide a tax credit to ensure that a family’s ability to adopt and provide a stable home for a child isn’t dependent on their wealth.”

That tax credit would help parents who are adopting older children, and Gillibrand’s plan for safe and affordable nurseries would help parents who are coming home with newborns. She plans to provide baby boxes that contain a small mattress and can be used as a safe sleep surface but will also be packed with “diapers, swaddle blankets, and onesies.”

And of course, like so many politicians in America right now, she’s got a plan for paid family leave, but she’s also tackling children’s health care in the same breath. “It’s past time we create a national paid family and medical leave insurance program, so that everyone can take the time they need to be with their loved ones without having to worry about how they’ll pay the bills. And I would ensure that every child has the right to health care, by making the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) universal,” she explains.

From there, Gillibrand is committing to universal pre-K and an expansion of the Child and Dependent Care tax credit to help families with the cost of childcare.

With more than 20 competitors running against her and a poll numbers suggesting she’s nowhere near the lead, many may not take Gillibrand’s announcement seriously. There are a lot of promises in her Family Bill of Rights, but that fact alone reminds us just how much American families are missing right now.

Time will tell how far Gillibrand will get on this platform, but we hope other politicians (in both parties) are listening. Because she was listening to us. And she’s got our attention.

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