Pregnant and Fired

Having had a son almost 4 months ago now, I witnessed my wife's pregnancy from beginning to end.  I saw how normal tasks became more difficult as our son grew inside of her, putting stress on her back, reducing the size of my wife's lungs, and increasing the runs to the bathroom.  Overall, my wife had a fantastic pregnancy with no complications and no lasting side effects along the way.  However, my wife is a teacher and was subsequently off for her 7th and 8th month of pregnancy, greatly assisting her in relaxing and making the overall experience more enjoyable.  She did have to return to work for about a month near the end, and I also witnessed how little she was able to do at work because of our son growing inside of her.  Luckily, the school she works at is very supportive of their employees, especially during pregnancy, and allowed her some leeway throughout her last month.  Yet, upon reading an article the other day about how a good number of women lose their jobs during their pregnancy simply due to requesting little accommodations to make their life easier, I was quite taken aback.  According to the article, (which talks about situations in New York) there is a gap throughout most of the country between discrimination laws and disability laws.  Businesses can not discriminate against pregnant women, firing them for simply being pregnant.  They must also provide accommodations to those with disabilities.  The gap arises because as pregnancy is not a disability, the moment a pregnant women asks for accommodations, such as extra bathroom breaks or assistance in lifting heavy objects, businesses are able to fire them.  They are not firing them because they are pregnant, which would violate the discrimination laws, they are firing them because they are asking for their life to be made a little easier so they don't have complications during their pregnancies.  The only way a pregnant woman can fit under the Americans with Disabilities Act is if they have medical complications arising from their pregnancies.  As most women don't, they can be fired for asking for accommodations.  (Article linked here.)

This gap that most pregnant women fall into can be disastrous for families if they are fired.  As many families these days rely on two incomes to support their families, when a woman loses her job during pregnancy, it immediately puts a family into more financial stress.  This stress, as most women know, can have an adverse affect on a pregnancy.  Once a woman, or anyone for that matter, loses their job, it is much harder to re-enter the work force.  It is even harder for women, because being pregnant, most companies will shy away from hiring them, not because they are pregnant, but because they were fired from their other job or are not a good fit for the job they are applying.  After giving birth, most women who have jobs take maternity leave to stay at home with their new born for at least 6 weeks, sometimes 12.  For an unemployed woman, this time after giving birth is not paid for and in addition, extends the period of time that they are unemployed for, making it harder in the long run to re-enter the work force.  It is a crappy situation, one that it seems larger corporations would be likely to take advantage of, especially in the retail industry.  The only good news is that at least 7 states so far have introduced legislation on the state level to close this gap between discrimination laws and disability laws for pregnant women.  Now imagine if the pregnant woman was also the provider of her family's health insurance (as my wife is).  Losing a job means losing health insurance at a vital time.  If either my wife or I didn't have health insurance during her pregnancy and her delivery of our son, we would have had to pay in excess of $30,000 dollars out of pocket.  That would have put a serious dent into our finances. 

It seems that as more and more people are achieving equal rights in the work force, there is always a new group that is discovered to have been left out of the mix.  This time its pregnant women, which encompasses all ethnicities and religious beliefs.  It is about women's rights in the work place.  Women's rights have come a long way, but it seems that someone forgot to include the time when women are pregnant.  Most women get pregnant at some point in their life (not all, but most) and in this day and age when a growing number of households require two incomes to support their lifestyles, more and more women who are pregnant are also working.  Luckily there is movement in the right direction and it seems that with 7 states already closing the gap, the trend is moving in the right direction.  However, a larger push needs to be made so that this gap is closed more quickly across the country.  It is time for pregnant women to be able to ask for accommodations in their place of work without fear of losing their job.  Let us only hope that more people take up this cause, fight for the rights of pregnant women and their unborn children, and keep our country moving on the right path.  (If you read yesterday, I obviously believe that in some ways, our country is not moving in the right direction).  Equal rights in the work place have come a long way, but it seems that at this point, we need to look at the more nuanced effects of the laws and how they are enforced or who they leave out of the mix.