Map: Does your state actually care about working parents?

The National Partnership for Women and Families is out with a new report called “Expecting Better” that grades state laws that help new parents–such as paid parental leave, paid sick days, protections against pregnancy discrimination, and laws to accommodate breastfeeding mothers. A whopping 18 states were given Fs for “failing to provide a single benefit or program to help support families before and after the birth, adoption or foster placement of a child.”

It’s not news that the U.S. is notoriously “family unfriendly.” Rhetorically, of course, politicians of both stripes think mothering is the most important job in the world–one apparently deserving of lavish praise but little material support. It has never ceased to amaze me that conservatives can get away with yammering ad nauseam about their “pro-family” values without supporting a single policy to help real families. Indeed, as Jezebel notes, conservative states get some of the worst grades. It’s high-time both progressives and conservatives not only expected but also demanded better.