Portland Now Offers Bereavement Leave to City Employees Who Undergo an Abortion

Sometimes inadvertently truthful admissions about abortion slip out from the very institutions that unhesitatingly support it. Such is the case with the recent announcement from the City Council of Portland, Oregon, that city employees will now be entitled to three days of bereavement leave after undergoing an abortion, as reported by news station KEPR.

“Bereavement,” as defined in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, is the state of being sad because a family member or friend has recently died.

Most rational people understand that abortion takes a human life. In one sense, grieving the death of a human being at the hands of an abortionist makes complete sense.

For decades, however, the abortion industry and those who support abortion have argued that a preborn baby is merely a “blob of tissue” or a “clump of cells.” If so, why would undergoing an abortion create a state of sadness over the death of a family member, therefore justifying bereavement leave?

The Portland City Council has unwittingly pulled back the curtain on the abortion lie, says Focus on the Family’s Executive Director of Advocacy for Children Robyn Chambers.

“If the pro-choice side says ‘shout about your abortion and celebrate it,’ then why is Portland allowing bereavement leave for it?” Chambers told The Daily Citizen. “The very word means loss – the recognition of the loss of a family member, a person. Someone whose input in our lives we will miss.”

The Portland policy allows employees to take up to three days off work after any type of pregnancy loss. And that includes an abortion, “irrespective of whether it is deemed medically necessary.”

According to KATU News, in addition to abortion, the policy covers stillbirths and miscarriages. City Commissioner Mingus Mapps touted the new policy.

“Policies like this are exceptionally rare in the United States,” said Mapps. “In fact, Portland may be unique in the nation for providing leave to people who are mourning the loss of an unborn child.”

Portland is a deeply liberal city. For city officials to admit that abortion results in “the loss of an unborn child” is a startling confession of the true nature of the procedure.

The pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute, which serves as the research arm of the abortion industry, expressed surprise at the new Portland policy. Elizabeth Nash, a state policy analyst for Guttmacher, told Oregon Public Broadcasting that she’d never heard of bereavement policies that include abortion.

“This is just incredibly uncommon,” she said. “It’s a bit of a whiplash for me, honestly.”

Focus on the Family’s Chambers has a suggestion for Portland and other employers examining this issue.

“The better benefit employers could give their employees is more paid leave to welcome the birth of new babies to their families. Let’s promote life by addressing and rewarding the additions to families.”

Photo from Shutterstock.