California legislators have killed a bill that would have given pregnant women parking privileges in handicapped spots, the Sacramento Bee reports.
Assembly Bill 1940 would have allowed women to qualify for "temporarily disabled" parking placards in the last three months of pregnancy and first two months after birth. It died Monday in the Assembly Transportation Committee, the paper said.
"For that brief five-month period, let's give them some consideration," Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, R-Irving, told the paper, noting that his bill would have assisted women with swollen feet or having a particularly painful day.
But the plan might have created unforeseen problems, one critic said.
"Pregnancy is not itself a disability and, secondly, we are creating an issue for the disability community without offering a solution," Charlotte Newhart, of California NOW and the American Association of University Women, told the Bee.
The state's Department of Motor Vehicles told the paper that pregnant women can already obtain disabled placards if their doctors diagnose mobility problems.
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