Aparna Mathur, a resident scholar in economic policy at the American Enterprise Institute, a right-leaning research group, said she spoke in December to a “lower-level” member of Trump’s transition team about the president’s idea. Staffers were considering one key revision, she said: turning maternity leave into parental leave — a benefit that fathers, too, could access.
“They didn’t want to just focus on mothers,” she said. “They were thinking about making it gender-neutral.”
[She thought she was entitled to maternity leave. After asking for it, she lost her job.]
A White House spokesperson would not confirm whether the president’s policy had changed but said, “It’s a top priority of his. The president has expressed a need for a comprehensive maternity plan.”
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