Handicap Parking For Pregnant Women Bill Signed

Today Governor Brad Henry of Oklahoma signed legislation allowing pregnant women the right to park in handicapped spaces during their final months of pregnancy if their doctors decide it’s necessary.

“The final trimester creates a significant physical challenge for many women, one that we ought to accommodate,” said state Rep. Danny Morgan, D-Prague. “Walking during the late stage of pregnancy is often difficult and painful. This new law will help expectant mothers preparing for the birth of their child.”

This bill would give pregnant women the ability to obtain temporary placards from their doctors allowing them to park in handicapped spacing.

The current law covers these individuals:

• those cannot walk 200 feet without stopping to rest
• people who require the use of a brace or a cane
• those who have temporarily lost the use of one or more limbs (such as those with a broken leg)
• those who are severely limited in their ability to walk due to an arthritic, neurological or orthopedic condition

If you have seen a woman in her third trimester of pregnancy, it is painfully obvious that many of them meet that first requirement. Some retailers and grocers have already tried to accommodate expecting mothers by having a parking spot specially designated for them, but this new law applies to every establishment.

Morgan, the leader of the House Democratic Caucus, said the idea for the legislation came during the recent ice storms when he witnessed a pregnant woman having to cross an icy parking lot on foot.

“The consequences of a fall at such a late stage in a woman’s pregnancy could be very serious,” Morgan said. “If that woman had been allowed to use the handicap spot near the entrance, she would have been at much less risk of an injury.”

This law is possibly something for our national congressmen to consider implementing on a national level.

“When you crunch the numbers, it’s pretty clear that granting pregnant women temporary placards will not create a parking shortage for individuals with permanent disabilities,” Morgan said. “In any given quarter, you would only have perhaps 1,100 more placards issued statewide on top of the 80,000 already issued.”

Making this law would not automatically give all pregnant women a temporary placard. Doctors still have the responsibility of deciding who would benefit from a placard.