DES MOINES, Iowa — Governor Kim Reynolds signed legislation on Monday that will give parents through adoption the same rights as other parents in the state of Iowa. 

The bill requires equal leave for adoptive parents, which means employers in Iowa will be required to treat an employer who chooses to adopt a child up to six years of age in the same manner as an employer who is the biological parents of a newborn child for purposes of employment policies, benefits and protections for the first year of adoption.

The House first passed it 87-0 in March, then the Senate passed it 45-0 in April and now Governor Reynolds has signed it Monday. Unanimous and quick.

But really it has been a fight for over a decade.

“Very exciting. It’s been a long time coming. I’ve worked in the past with a group called Adoption Advocates of Iowa,” Melonie Wallace, a mom through adoption, said. “I think it’s huge. We’re not asking companies to change their policy. We’re asking for equal benefit for families who choose to adopt.”

“Why do they need any time? Well, they need time to bond just like anybody else does, just like all parents do,” said Michael Ware, parent through adoption. “My wife and I, when we adopted, we’ve got a couple children now, we saved the money, we saved the vacation time or whatever else to do this. I’m worried that other parents might not be able to do this. It was obvious something needed to be done.”

“Anything that’s going to support our foster adoptive families and the kids that they’re caring for, of course,” Emily Easton of Four Oaks Foster Care & Adoption said. “So anything that creates an opportunity for those, those adoptive families to have more time to bond with those kids is a win from, from our perspective.”

Many times parents through adoption have to travel during the adoption process. This takes time, so this law will help in that regard.

“A lot of times you’re not adopting in state,” Wallace said. “My oldest was born out of state, so we were gone for 17 days in a different state. And so that’s another reason why this is so important. They can go two, three weeks, sometimes four weeks to another state to meet their child, and they’re not going to have to worry about work or being unpaid.”

It’s all about equality.

“Oh, it’s tremendous. Imagine for a moment that you’re a parent and somebody segregates you and said, well, you’re not a real parent. I don’t mean to sound inappropriate or divisive, but that’s exactly what it says when they say, well, we don’t confer this. This we don’t confer this benefit to you. Yeah, you paid for it. Yes, it’s part of your total cost of employment,” Ware said. “Yes, it goes into the package, but you’re locked out of using it because we don’t recognize you as a real parent. So when we chip away at a piece by piece like this, I’m very, very happy of the progress that surrounds these things. They’re just common sense and they honor parents across the board.”

“Some of those kids have been through some really hard times. And adoptions are not always simple. Because of the loss of a birth family, but also the celebration of a safe and stable home. So having some extra time to manage those feelings and behaviors and make that transition smoothly is great,” Easton said.

Another bill was just passed last week too for state employees to get paid parental leave. Under the bill, adoptive parents would get the same as a parent who gave birth, four weeks, and non-birthing parents would get one week of leave.

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