A woman who has dedicated herself to getting Congress to pass expanded national legislation guaranteeing paid leave for mothers after her 3-month-old boy died in an unlicensed daycare center last year was denied entrance to Donald Trump's campaign headquarters on Monday.
As reported by DNAinfo, Amber Scorah, a New York Democrat, and Ali Dodd, a Republican from Oklahoma, showed up at Trump Towers on Monday with a petition bearing 135,00 signatures demanding parental leave reform.
Both Scorah and Dodd had a child die last year while in daycare after they were compelled to get back to work due to financial considerations.
According to the two women, a representative from the Trump campaign would meet them and accept a copy of the petition. However, when they arrived a man wearing a Trump fleece vest took the box before refusing them entry to the elevator leading to the campaign headquarters offices.
Among the many mothers who showed up for the dropping off of the petition was Trump supporter Kathryn Martin from South Carolina whose daughter Kelli Ryn died in a day care center in 2014. The disappointed Martin said she will no longer be voting for Trump after the encounter.
"Being a Republican, it was disappointing," explained Martin. "It was like we were just annoying them."
According to Scorah, the Family Leave Act -- which mandates at least 12 weeks of unpaid maternity leave for women but does not require paid leave -- is outdated, stating: "The policy is stuck in the 1950s."
Dodd, who put her late son Shepard in daycare 10 weeks after she gave birth because she needed to get back to work, added, "Our children should never have been at risk. Neither of us had any option at all.”
According to the two women they also delivered copies of the petition to Hillary Clinton's headquarters, where they were invited in and spoke with Clinton adviser Jennifer Klein and other representatives.
