Pregnant workers are pushed out of work, and it’s time to finally protect them

Pregnant workers across America are routinely pushed out of their jobs after they request an accommodation like permission to sit on a stool, carry a bottle of water or take additional bathroom breaks.

When a pregnant grocery store manager in Oregon told her supervisor she couldn’t lift heavy boxes, her employer repeatedly reduced her hours and assigned her to shifts that included heavy lifting. Eventually, she was suspended without pay. When a worker in South Carolina requested accommodations so she could attend doctors’ appointments during her high-risk pregnancy, her employer told her “You don’t get special treatment just for being pregnant.” Shortly thereafter, she was fired. These situations are far too common.

For a decade, advocates and members of Congress have been collaborating to ensure that pregnant workers who need a temporary change at work no longer must choose between their paycheck and the health of their pregnancies. The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act would require employers to make reasonable accommodations for pregnancy, childbirth and related medical conditions — and it is mere inches away from becoming the law of the land. And yet, it’s at risk of becoming a casualty of a lack of political will in the final weeks of Congress. 

While the 1978 Pregnancy Discrimination Act has prohibited employers from discriminating on the basis of pregnancy for almost 45 years, current federal law provides incomplete protection for employees who simply need a reasonable accommodation because of their pregnancies. If a pregnant worker is unable to identify a nonpregnant worker who received the same accommodation that she needs, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act isn’t designed to help her. And because a routine pregnancy is not considered a disability under the law, the Americans with Disabilities Act may not provide recourse, even when a doctor recommends a reasonable accommodation, like avoiding heavy lifting for a few months.  

The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act clearly will make a positive difference in women’s lives — especially for those working in the low-paid jobs that are the most likely to be physically demanding and the least likely to offer flexibility to workers. Too often, when a pregnant worker simply needs a minor shift in workplace duties or policies because of pregnancy, she will instead be forced to take unpaid leave or be pushed out of work entirely, at a time when she and her family can least afford it. Indeed, according to recent Morning Consult polling, nearly one-quarter of parents have thought about leaving a job due to pregnancy discrimination or lack of pregnancy accommodations, as have more than one in five women ages 18 to 34. 

Despite the stark partisan divides across the U.S., there is remarkable consensus that this situation is unfair and indefensible and that the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act is the solution. When the House of Representatives voted on the bill last year, every Democrat voting, along with 99 Republicans, supported it. Women’s rights and workers’ rights groups like mine, the National Women’s Law Center, champion it, and so do groups that represent employer interests, like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Society for Human Resource Management. Not only does Planned Parenthood support the bill — so does the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Bedfellows don’t get much stranger than this.  

In the Senate, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act is being championed by Sen. Bob Casey, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, and Bill Cassidy, a Republican from Louisiana, and it has a robust bipartisan list of co-sponsors. If it is brought to the Senate floor before the end of the year, it will pass with more than 60 votes. 

This makes sense because passing the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act is not only the right thing to do, it’s politically popular. Morning Consult polling from late September found that 97 percent of Democrats and 91 percent of Republicans say that guaranteeing workplace accommodations for pregnant and post-partum workers is important, and nearly two-thirds of voters (63%) say Congress should work quickly to pass the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. Moreover, a majority of voters (55%) say that in the midterms, they are more likely to support a candidate who supports the bill, including 80 percent of Democrats. The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act should be part of candidates’ closing message to voters ahead of the midterm elections. 

But despite its overwhelming popularity, Senate leadership still hasn’t committed to a vote on the bill by the end of this Congress. Time is running out. It’s taken lawmakers and advocates 10 years to get this far, and changes in the makeup of the House or the Senate threaten to derail that progress. After all, when they controlled the House and the Senate, Republican leadership made no moves to enact the bill, even in the face of strong support by Republican members. 

As many states rush to ban abortion in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, the fact that federal law fails to guarantee basic accommodations to allow a pregnant person to continue working safely to support herself and her family is a cruel joke. The Senate’s lack of urgency in passing this bill in the remaining weeks of this Congress is another — especially given that this past year saw not only the overturning of Roe v. Wade, but the stripping away of paid family and medical leave, home and community-based services, as well as child care from the infrastructure deal and the Inflation Reduction Act in the Senate. Women deserve more. 

Congress should take every action that it can to make sure that pregnancy and parenting don’t mean poverty for women and their families. But the very least that Congress can and must do is pass the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. The bill is popular and has the votes to pass — all the Senate needs to do is schedule a vote and deliver this win for women and their families. 

Emily Martin is vice president for education and workplace Justice at the National Women’s Law Center.