DeVore updates bill for parking for the pregnant

Assemblyman Chuck DeVore has introduced an amendment to his bill granting temporary access to parking for the disabled to pregnant women in their third trimester and within two months of childbirth, restricting access to such spaces for free parking zones — such as a supermarket parking lot — only.

DeVore said he was acknowledging concerns of critics that a number of free parking spots for the disabled offered in for-profit parking garages, a feature typical in large urban areas, may be taken up by the influx of newly eligible parkers at no cost.

While pregnant women are eligible for handicapped parking decals, it is dependent solely on physical criterion that DeVore said ignores some of the other trials of pregnancy.

“Let’s say it’s a week after you get out of the hospital, and you show up to the pharmacy and you’re parking maybe 50 yards out. Well, now you’ve got this new person ...,” DeVore said. “Wouldn’t it be nice to give people who had just given birth some transition to get used to handling all of this stuff?”

The National Organization for Women has criticized the bill, saying it was wary of framing pregnancy as a “disability.”

DeVore was dismissive of the claim, saying the idea was proposed to him by a pregnant constituent.

— Chris Caesar