Meghan McCain Speaks Out Around the Need for Better Maternity Leave

Meghan McCain, The View co-host and new mom, is now calling for a mandatory paid maternity leave.

After giving birth to her daughter Liberty in late September, McCain was fully anticipating returning to The View in time for Election Day, she said up on her return. However, her return was delayed due to health complications and an emergency c-section. She wound up taking a three-month leave to heal and recover.

“When I gave birth I actually had postnatal preeclampsia…I was in the hospital for a week after a Magnesium drip and it really, really kicked my butt,” McCain said on the show following her return on Monday, January 4. “I was physically unable to come back [when I planned]…I had to have my husband and mother-in-law help me do everything from shower to eat—it was deeply humbling—to help me take care of Liberty. The whole time I was thinking about what a privilege it is to have this kind of maternity leave.”

McCain then went on to discuss how, while support for a mandatory paid maternity leave is rising, there needs to be more bipartisan and unanimous support.

“We are leaving women in this country without [that] capacity and ability—unless you have an employer that allows you to take care of your child—to heal physically, which is something that needs to happen,” she said on the show.“This is something that’s really, a really dark spot for our country. We are the only developing nation that doesn’t supply women with paid family leave….We as conservatives have to come together and allow all women in this country no matter where they’re from or their socioeconomic class the capacity to have what I just had, which is three months of bonding time and breastfeeding and healing.”

McCain continued that she hopes she and her colleagues on The View can raise awareness for and urge lawmakers to support a mandatory paid maternity leave in 2021.

While the discussion recognized the importance of having such a maternity leave, co-host Sara Haines also pointed out the importance of a better paternity leave, as well. “Well women and men because the family leave you speak of—so many women deal with problems like you did afterwards and postpartum was something I dealt with,” she said. “So often these are new dads—to bond with these babies, we’ve carried them, but these dads also need that time. With the modern family structure changing, I think it’s so important what you’re saying. Parents everywhere [should] get that leave.”