MSNBC’s Kasie Hunt Returns After Giving Birth to Deliver Striking Address: ‘Global Embarrassment’ That U.S. Lacks Paid Family Leave

MSNBC anchor Kasie Hunt returned from family leave to her show Sunday night, calling it a “global embarrassment” that the U.S. has no law mandating paid leave for new parents.

“I really wanted this little family that we have now so much. But I’m not going to lie. I was really scared going into it about my future at work and whether it was possible to figure out how to balance it all,” Hunt said on Kasie DC after returning from four months of maternity leave with her first child.

“Frankly, the statistics for women in the workplace after they have kids are discouraging,” she continued. “One recent study shows that women see a 30% drop in their earnings after they have their first bay I by. 30%. But for men, it’s the opposite. The same study showed they make 20% more than men who don’t have kids. It’s pretty demoralizing and frankly, I’m one of the most privileged.”

“Most Americans don’t have access to any of this. The United States of America is the only rich country in the world that doesn’t have a law on the books requiring paid leave for new parents,” she continued, noting that the maternal mortality rate in the United States is rising even though it is falling almost everywhere else in the world.

“It’s 2019 — I’m sorry, it’s 2020 and women are still dying needlessly in childbirth. This is a global embarrassment and we’re barely able to have a conversation beyond that about paternity leave,” Hunt said.

Hunt praised recent developments, like Congress passing 12 weeks of paid leave for federal workers but noted more was needed to be done for workers across America.

Last year, fellow MSNBC anchor Katy Tur made a similar plea endorsing paid family leave – calling it “shameful” that the U.S. lags behind other nations in establishing a federal standard.

Watch above, via MSNBC.