Parental Leave Is American Exceptionalism at Its Bleakest

American exceptionalism can sometimes be quite bleak: The United States is the only wealthy country in the world without a national program for paid parental leave.

The U.S.’s best chance yet of giving up this dismal distinction might be slipping away. The $1.8 trillion domestic-policy bill that’s making its way through Congress initially was going to include funding for 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave, which would cover a share of people’s wages as they take time off work to care for their loved ones (newborns included) or themselves.

But because of hesitations (and total resistance ), the proposed leave went from 12 weeks to four weeks to zero weeks, when the provision briefly dropped out of four weeks of leave, but whether that will make it into the final version of the bill that the Senate votes on is unclear.