Yes.

Also, I have never once heard anybody here complain that maternity/paternity leave is in some way damaging the company/employee/economy - just stuff that happens in the office.

Not disagreeing with the point of this comment, but just as an aside, pumping is something that even mothers who are on leave do. Speaking from personal experience as the dad, I was able to feed the baby pumped milk for some of the many daily feedings instead of my wife doing the breastfeeding, which let her get a few extra minutes/hours of sleep when the baby needed to be fed. Both of us were on parental leave during this period. That tradeoff (getting some extra sleep vs. pumping) is not one that all parents would make, but it did help us get through the first few weeks of a newborn.

Sure, but pumping once or every other feed is markedly different than pumping multiple times in a row over a solid 9 or 10 hour block of time.

For sure. Certainly once she did start going back to work and pumping at the office, it was less "fun" - the pumping room wasn't the most comfortable, she had to do it a lot more and cart it back and forth in a cooler, etc.

I think they mean it's not a good premise for implementing it somewhere else. Your mention of not needing to pump and being able to spend time with the kids are stronger premises.

some countries understand that healthcare and children are a matter of national security.

perhaps pentagon should get involved in parental leave policy. they could probably fund it outright out of their black budget.