Actually you're both missing the point. To counter "everyone except us has maternity leave" with "but countries 193-257 don't even have modernized health care" is completely missing the point. The point is that not only do ALL the countries that have health care systems remotely close to our level, or even far below our level offer 12+ weeks paid maternity, but most of those who don't have modern health care also offer paid maternity leave. That's the point of bringing up the laundry list of countries that believe something is important while we do not.

If we want to compare apples to apples, we're so woefully behind it's embarassing. I think saying we're on the level of Papua New Guinea is pretty embarassing, but what about when we say that all of Europe offers 6-18 months to our ZERO, then we wonder why they're healthier, happier and kicking our asses economically. People bring up those tiny, impoverished countries because it's too embarassing to compare us to our peers...