Vote Your Values
As a mother or an ally to mothers, we know you’re busy. In the hustle and bustle of our daily lives, what we care about can get lost.
No matter where you fall along party lines, we want to make this voting process easier for you. We’ve compiled some meaningful statistics and reflection questions on a few key issues to help you make a decisión aligned with your values.
As a mother, or an ally to mothers, how important is it for you to vote in alignment with your values on these issues?
Let’s take a look at your own experience:
As a mother or an ally to mothers, we know you’re busy. In the hustle and bustle of our daily lives, what we care about can get lost.
No matter where you fall along party lines, we want to make this voting process easier for you. We’ve compiled some meaningful statistics and reflection questions on a few key issues to help you make a decisión aligned with your values.
As a mother, or an ally to mothers, how important is it for you to vote in alignment with your values on these issues?
Let’s take a look at the state of caregiving in the United States:
Child Care
A new report published by the nonprofit Child Care Aware of America found that the average cost of child care for 2 children is higher than the average rent price in all 50 states. Nearly 3/4 of working parents say they have experienced challenges with accessing child care. (Council for Strong America, February 2023).
- How do you see cost, access, and quality of child care in America playing out in your day to day life or the day to day life of those around you?
- What are the consequences for your children and the children in your life?
- What are the consequences of the way child care is structured today for the country and economy at large?
- What would be possible if the United States had policies that better supported parents (e.g. providing affordable child care, defined as families not spending more than 7% of income on child care)?
Paid Family Medical Leave
The U.S. is the only industrialized country not to have mandated, paid parental leave. 1 in 4 women return to work within 2 weeks of giving birth. The average length for new mothers in countries that have leave is 29 weeks. Medical professionals and biology point to 6 months as a real turning point after giving birth. Taking time to care for babies and healing mothers is an additional expense and in many cases a privilege for U.S. families who can afford it.
- How do you see the current approach to paid family leave playing out in your day to day life or the day to day life of those around you?
- How did/will this impact the decisions you made/Will make along your journey to parenthood?
- What is/was the impact for your child, or children you know, in their first few months of life?
- Would your experience of becoming a parent have been different if the United States had a mandated paid family leave policy? If yes, how would it have been different?
Maternal Health
In the United States, 6.9 million women live in areas where there is low or no access to hospitals providing obstetric care, birth centers, OB/GYN or certified nurse midwives. These maternal deserts impact nearly 500,000 births per year. America’s maternal mortality rate has more than doubled over the past two decades, leaving the U.S. with the highest maternal mortality rate of any high-income country. (JAMA, July 2023) 84% of U.S. maternal deaths are preventable. Significant disparities exist for women of color, with Black and Indigenous women dying at rates of 2 to 3 times that of white women. (Kaiser Family Foundation, Nov. 2022).
- How do you see the state of maternal health impacting you and other mother’s in the U.S. at every stage of the process: 1) planning for a family 2) prenatal 3) birth 4) postpartum?
- How did this influence the decisions you made along your journey to parenthood?
- What would be possible if the United States had policies that better supported the birthing experience?
- What support would you want for yourself and other mothers?
Now that you’ve taken time to reflect…
- If you were to vote based on your answers to these questions, which candidate’s beliefs would be best aligned with what you care about on these issues?
- How profoundly does this issue impact you in comparison to other issues on a day to day basis?
- What would make you vote against your values on these issues? What feelings arise with the possibility of voting against your values?
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