| Allyson Felix, the most decorated female track-and-field Olympian athlete in history, remembers the beeping of the monitors in the NICU as her daughter was fighting for her life after her pre-term birth in 2018. During her pregnancy, Felix had developed severe preeclampsia; she had an emergency C-section and delivered her daughter at 32 weeks. But even in that critical moment when her daughter was born, her baby’s survival wasn’t the only thing on her mind. “I was reminded…what that feels like,” she said, speaking on a panel after the premiere of the short film Lifelines in early May, “and then thinking about work.”
“It’s this time when you see your child fighting, and yet here you are thinking about your livelihood, and it’s such a horrible place to be. Until people can really understand what that feels like, what that looks like, we have to continue to raise awareness because [paid leave] is something that everybody should absolutely have,” said the Olympic champion, who co–executive produced the film. The short documentary shows how state paid leave programs can give families financial stability and a little breathing room when they need it most.
Standing in the hallway of The Annex, an event space in Brooklyn, shortly before the screening on May 6, Felix explained to me that she joined the nonprofit organization Paid Leave for All in co–executive producing Lifelines after her eyes were opened to these issues and the way “that so many families don’t get paid leave, have to be thrust immediately back into their responsibilities and work, and just the effect and impact that has.”
Felix wrote about her ordeal in a New York Times opinion article in 2019, explaining how “she felt pressure to return to form as soon as possible” after giving birth. Felix was negotiating her renewal contract with Nike, and she wanted the company to agree that she would not be punished for her performance in the period during which she was in recovery from an emergency C-section. “Nike declined.”
After facing public pressure and questioning from members of Congress about the experiences of its sponsored athletes, Nike eventually updated its policy to extend protections for pregnant and postpartum athletes. It is because of Felix, who ultimately separated from Nike and signed a deal with Athleta, and her fellow former Nike athletes Alysia Montaño and Kara Goucher that the new paid leave policy became possible.
But just one in four working people has access to paid family leave through their job. With the fight for a federal policy effectively at a standstill in the current Congress, advocates are pushing a 50-state strategy, advancing progressive policies and winning at the state level. Earlier this year, Virginia adopted a new paid-family-and-medical-leave program, slated to take effect in 2028. The program makes Virginia the first Southern state to pass such a policy.
Dawn Huckelbridge, the founding director of Paid Leave for All, told me that the organization has tracked wins of various kinds in more than 40 states across the country, as well as incremental wins at the federal and municipal levels. “Progress is continuing [to be made], particularly at the state and local level, where we are seeing strong leadership, but a federal opportunity could be around the corner,” said Huckelbridge. “It’s important that we keep trying to help people’s lives, every day that we can, with this state-level work, and that we also engage the advocates and the legislators at the state level in helping to push for a federal guarantee.”
You can watch Lifelines at https://lifelinesthefilm.com.
In Solidarity,
Regina Mahone
Senior Editor, The Nation
Co-author, Liberating Abortion |
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