Abby McCloskey, Dallas Morning News, March 19, 2023

“A closing thought: We are a culture, a people and a state that loves freedom. We have a natural — and I believe good and well-placed — resistance to new government programs or interference in private affairs. But in the case of paid parental leave, I believe it would be the government helping to set up boundaries to ensure that a family can be a family. That in the car ride home from the hospital — baby awkwardly strapped into a car seat that feels way too big and you can’t believe the nurse from the hospital can’t come with you and will you really not sleep in longer stretches than three hours and was that last latch good enough or is my baby hungry — there’s not a question about if a job will be lost or where the next paycheck is coming from, at least not in the very near-term. That the family can be together in their home, bonding, adjusting, healing together, welcoming a new person into the world in peace. I’d love to think that’s Texan too.”