What is the Stork Spots for Expectant Mothers Act (SSEM)?
The Stork Spots for Expectant Mothers Act is a proposed federal law with one simple goal: make sure pregnant women have a safe place to park.
Right now, no federal law requires any business, hospital, government building, or public facility to reserve a single parking space near the entrance for a pregnant woman. Not one. A woman at 35 weeks pregnant navigates the same crowded parking lot — the same cracked pavement, the same long walk across active traffic lanes — as everyone else. And when she falls, the law offers her nothing.
The SSEM Act changes that. It requires any facility with 20 or more parking spaces to designate at least one reserved Stork Spot near the front entrance, marked with a distinctive maroon sign bearing a stork image and the words "Stork Spot — Expectant Mothers Only." The number of required spaces scales with the size of the facility. Medical facilities — hospitals, OB/GYN offices, prenatal clinics — face enhanced requirements, because the women who visit them need it most.
The rule we're most proud of: no documentation required. No placard. No doctor's note. No proof of any kind. A pregnant woman's own word — "I am pregnant" — is the only credential this law will ever ask for. Any business that demands more than that is itself in violation.
The SSEM Act is not a heavy mandate. The average Stork Spot costs $487 to install. Small businesses are exempt. Those that choose to comply voluntarily receive a federal tax credit. What we are asking for, at its core, is a painted parking space and a maroon sign — for a woman who is already carrying enough.
We are currently in the petitioning phase. The bill has not yet been introduced. Every signature, every story, and every phone call to a Member of Congress brings it one step closer.
Why not just let them use handicap spots?
The ADA was designed for a specific population with specific needs — permanent or long-term physical disabilities that substantially limit major life activities. Pregnancy is temporary. It is not a disability. Conflating the two does a disservice to both populations.
Beyond the legal problem, there's a practical one. Handicap spaces are already spoken for. They are required in specific numbers by federal law, and those numbers are calibrated to the disabled population that needs them. Sending pregnant women to compete for those spaces doesn't solve the problem — it creates a new one. Now you have pregnant women and disabled individuals competing for the same limited spots near the entrance, and the disabled individual — who may have no other option — loses out.
Stork Spots are separate, additional, and specifically designed for a different population with different needs. The ADA spaces aren't going anywhere. We're simply asking for a few more spaces near the door — for women who need them for a finite, specific, medically documented reason.
Won't this hurt small business?
The bill was written with small businesses in mind. If your business has fewer than 15 employees and makes under a million dollars a year, you are completely exempt. No Stork Spot required. Full stop. The mandate only applies to facilities large enough to absorb a cost that averages less than $500.
What is to prevent women from abusing this?
That's not a benefit worth fabricating a pregnancy for. This isn't a financial subsidy, a tax exemption, or a lifetime benefit. It's a parking space. People who want to park closer to the entrance already do — by arriving early, by circling the lot, by dropping someone off. The "abuse" here is indistinguishable from ordinary parking behavior.
