Pregnancy and Labor: An Overview of Federal
June 17, 2021
Laws Protecting Pregnant Workers
April J. Anderson
The Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) generally protects job applicants and employees from
Legislative Attorney
adverse action—firing, demotion, refusal to hire, or forced leave—because of pregnancy or

related conditions. It also bars harassment based on pregnancy and bans retaliation against
workers for making a complaint about pregnancy discrimination. Pregnancy-related conditions

can include fertility treatments, medical complications, delivery, postpartum conditions, and
lactation. The PDA was enacted as an amendment to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which protects against sex
discrimination (as well as certain other forms of discrimination) in employment.
As construed by the Supreme Court, the PDA does not generally require employers to make changes in working conditions to
accommodate pregnant workers unless accommodations are provided to other similarly situated nonpregnant workers. Thus,
if an employer never (or hardly ever) allows work adjustments for nonpregnant employees, it generally is not legally required
under the PDA to accommodate a pregnant employee. Therefore, while employers cannot fire workers for being pregnant, the
law does not require them to make workplace changes (e.g., scheduling flexibility, an extra bathroom break) simply because
the employee’s demands are pregnancy-related.
In some circumstances, pregnant workers may invoke federal statutes in addition to the PDA when they seek workplace
alterations or leave. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) mandates modifications for those women who face
pregnancy-related impairments significant enough to satisfy the ADA’s definition of a “disability.” Some workers can invoke
the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) for unpaid leave related to childbearing, but not all pregnant workers qualify as
having a disability under the ADA. Some workers and some employers fall outside the FMLA’s purview.
Some advocates and legislators have proposed expanding legal protections afforded to pregnant workers. These proposals
may take the form of amendments to existing laws, stand-alone measures, new pregnancy accommodation requirements, or
leave entitlements. Many states have enacted additional pregnancy accommodations in recent years. A federal pregnancy
accommodation proposal, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, passed the House of Representatives in 2021, after an earlier
version of the legislation passed by that body in 2020. This scheme largely mirrors the structure of the ADA, requiring case-
by-case assessment of reasonable accommodations for pregnant workers. The House also passed the Equality Act in 2021.
That bill would provide that prohibitions on sex discrimination in several federal statutes include pregnancy, childbirth, and
related conditions.
In addition to the disability regime like that of the ADA, some have proposed leave-based models for potential legislation,
under which pregnant workers must be allowed job-protected leave. Numerous similar statutes exist outside of the pregnancy
context, using accommodations, reemployment rights, or leave entitlements to protect workers’ engagement in such
endeavors as voting, military service, religious exercise, or participation in the legal system.
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Introduction
Federal laws have protected pregnant workers for decades. These laws generally bar employers
from taking adverse action against a worker because of pregnancy. They do not generally require
employers to make workplace changes to accommodate pregnancy, unless such accommodations
are provided to similarly situated nonpregnant workers. While pregnancy is not a disability per se,
protections for workers with disabilities may apply to women who face certain pregnancy-related
medical conditions.1
The Equal Opportunity Employment Commission (EEOC), the federal entity primarily charged
with monitoring compliance and enforcing antidiscrimination laws, reports that it receives
thousands of pregnancy discrimination complaints each year.2 Most charges of pregnancy
discrimination include allegations that individuals faced termination based on pregnancy.3 Other
charges include claims that pregnant workers endured harsher discipline, suspensions pending
receipt of medical releases, suggestions that they undergo an abortion, and involuntary leave.4
This report provides an overview of laws protecting pregnant workers, including their substantive
provisions, legislative history, practical considerations, judicial interpretation, and limitations. In
addition, this report summarizes proposed changes for pregnancy protections and describes other
employment laws that may serve as models for potential legislation.
Federal Law Prior to the Pregnancy
Discrimination Act
Prior to the enactment of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA), federal law did not expressly
address discriminatory treatment of pregnant workers. The primary federal statute addressing
discrimination in the workplace, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, made it unlawful to
discriminate “against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or
privileges of employment, because of such individual’s . . . sex.”5 Prohibited actions include
discharge, discrimination in pay, denial of promotion, demotion, closer scrutiny, harsher
discipline, suspensions, and forced leave.6 In addition to adverse actions, Title VII bars
harassment because of sex—that is, harsh treatment that is severe or pervasive enough to alter the

1 See infra notes 160-178.
2 Pregnancy Discrimination Charges FY 2010 - FY 2019, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
[hereinafter EEOC], https://www.eeoc.gov/statistics/pregnancy-discrimination-charges-fy-2010-fy-2019 (last visited
June 4, 2021).
3 EEOC, ENFORCEMENT GUIDANCE ON PREGNANCY DISCRIMINATION AND RELATED ISSUES, No. 915.003 (June 25, 2015)
[hereinafter EEOC Enforcement Guidance], https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/guidance/enforcement-guidance-pregnancy-
discrimination-and-related-issues (last visited June 4, 2021).
4 Id.; Joan Williams, Written Testimony of Joan Williams Professor of Law UC Hastings Foundation Chair Director,
Center for Worklife Law – Unlawful Discrimination Against Pregnant Workers and Workers with Caregiving
Responsibilities, Meeting of February 15, 2012, EEOC, http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/meetings/2-15-12/williams.cfm (last
visited June 4, 2021).
5 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(a)(1) (“It shall be an unlawful employment practice for an employer to fail or refuse to hire or to
discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms,
conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individual’s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.”);
EEOC Enforcement Guidance, supra note 3.
6 EEOC Enforcement Guidance, supra note 3.
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employee’s terms and conditions of employment.7 Workers who oppose discrimination, file a
discrimination complaint, or participate in the complaint process are protected from retaliation.8 If
they prevail on a claim of discrimination or retaliation, employees may seek equitable relief and
damages including back pay and punitive damages.9
Because (in its original form) Title VII did not mention pregnancy, courts were left to determine
how the prohibition on sex discrimination applied to pregnant workers. In 1976, the Supreme
Court took up the issue in Gilbert v. General Electric. In that case, General Electric offered a
benefits plan to compensate employees unable to work because of illness or injury.10 The plan
excluded pregnancy and related conditions, but not other medical conditions, from coverage.11
After a class of women employees presented claims for pregnancy-related medical conditions and
challenged the plan as discriminatory, the Court held that the pregnancy exclusion did not violate
Title VII because it did not treat men and women differently.12 The benefits plan did not divide
employees into groups of men and groups of women for separate treatment, as the Court saw it;
instead, the plan separated employees into groups of pregnant and nonpregnant people.13 The
Court said that “[n]ormal pregnancy is an objectively identifiable physical condition with unique
characteristics,” and Title VII did not bar employers from excluding pregnancy from benefits
coverage “on any reasonable basis.”14 It might be different if the employer intended to target
women for mistreatment, the Court acknowledged, but it concluded that General Electric’s
decision to exclude pregnancy was not pretext for sex discrimination.15
The Pregnancy Discrimination Act
In response to Gilbert, Congress passed the Pregnancy Discrimination Act as an amendment to
Title VII. The PDA did not alter Title VII’s substantive provisions on remedies or enforcement.16
Instead, the PDA added two phrases to Title VII’s definitions section clarifying that pregnancy is
a form of sex discrimination. The first phrase of the PDA adds pregnancy into the list of
categories protected from discrimination, declaring that “[t]he terms ‘because of sex’ or ‘on the
basis of sex’ include, but are not limited to, because of or on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, or

7 Mendoza v. Borden, Inc., 195 F.3d 1238, 1245 (11th Cir. 1999). See also Harris v. Forklift Sys., Inc., 510 U.S. 17, 21
(1993) (noting discrimination “includes requiring people to work in a discriminatorily hostile or abusive
environment”); Harassment, EEOC, https://www.eeoc.gov/harassment (last visited June 4, 2021).
8 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-3; EEOC Enforcement Guidance, supra note 3; Questions and Answers: Enforcement Guidance on
Retaliation and Related Issues, EEOC, https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/guidance/questions-and-answers-enforcement-
guidance-retaliation-and-related-issues (last visited June 4, 2021).
9 Kolstad v. Am. Dental Ass’n, 527 U.S. 526, 529 (1999); 42 U.S.C. § 1981; Remedies for Employment Discrimination,
EEOC, https://www.eeoc.gov/remedies-employment-discrimination (last visited June 4, 2021).
10 Gen. Elec. Co. v. Gilbert, 429 U.S. 125, 127 (1976).
11 Id. at 127.
12 Id. at 139.
13 Id. at 135.
14 Id.
15 Gen. Elec. Co. v. Gilbert, 429 U.S. 125, 127 (1976) at 134.
16 California Fed. Sav. & Loan Ass’n v. Guerra, 479 U.S. 272, 284-85 (1987) (noting “the PDA reflects Congress’
disapproval of the reasoning in Gilbert”); see also Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co. v. EEOC, 462 U.S.
669, 681 (1983) (observing that “[p]roponents of the legislation stressed throughout the debates that Congress had
always intended to protect all individuals from sex discrimination in employment—including but not limited to
pregnant women workers”).
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related medical conditions.”17 Thus, Title VII now expressly protects covered employees and job
applicants from discrimination, including demotion, firing, or denial of employment based on
pregnancy.18
In the second phrase, the PDA requires that “women affected by pregnancy, childbirth, or related
medical conditions shall be treated the same for all employment-related purposes, including
receipt of benefits under fringe benefit programs, as other persons not so affected but similar in
their ability or inability to work.”19 Legislative history suggests that Congress intended the
amendment to clarify that “distinctions based on pregnancy are per se violations of Title VII.”20 It
also suggests that, in enacting the PDA, Congress did not mean to single out pregnant women for
special protection.21 Nevertheless, the PDA’s requirement that pregnant women “be treated the
same . . . as other persons not so affected but similar in their ability or inability to work” is unlike
safeguards Title VII provides other protected groups; the statute does not use similar language
elsewhere.22 This different language has caused some confusion in the courts—most notably in
assessing disparate impact claims.23
Certain pregnant employees fall outside the PDA’s protections. Title VII incorporates a number
of exemptions, and these apply to the PDA. The statute does not cover employers of fewer than
15 workers.24 Other categories of employers, including the military, many judicial employers, and
elected officials (for the employment of personal staff) lay outside the statute’s purview.25 Title
VII also allows religious institutions more leeway in employment decisions related to their
religious mission.26

17 42 U.S.C. § 2000e(k).
18 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000e(k), 2000e-2; EEOC Enforcement Guidance, supra note 3. Title VII also bars harassment because
of pregnancy.
19 42 U.S.C. § 2000e(k).
20 H.R. REP. NO. 95-948, at 3 (1978) (report from the Committee on Education and Labor to accompany the House
version of the PDA, H.R. 6075). See also S. REP. NO. 95-331, at 3 (1977) (report from the Committee on Human
Resources to accompanying the Senate version of the PDA, S. 995, and stating that the measure was “intended to make
plain that, under title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, discrimination based on pregnancy, childbirth, and related
medical conditions is discrimination based on sex”); Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co. v. EEOC, 462 U.S.
669, 681 (1983) (discussing legislative history of PDA).
21 S. REP. NO. 95-331, at 4 (1977) (“Basic to all of these applications is that the bill, because it would operate as part of
title VII, prohibits only discriminatory treatment. Therefore, the bill does not require employers to treat pregnant
women in any particular manner with respect to hiring, permitting them to continue working, providing sick leave,
furnishing medical and hospital benefits, providing disability benefits, or any other matter. The bill would simply
require that pregnant women be treated the same as other employees on the basis of their ability or inability to work.”);
H.R. REP. NO. 95-948, 3-4 (“We recognize that enactment of H.R. 6075 [the House version of the PDA] will reflect no
new legislative mandate of the congress nor effect changes in practices, costs, or benefits beyond those intended by
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. On the contrary, the narrow approach utilized by the bill is to eradicate confusion by
expressly broadening the definition of sex discrimination in Title VII to include pregnancy-based discrimination.”).
22 42 U.S.C. § 2000e(k); see also Young v. United Parcel Serv., Inc., 575 U.S. 206, 219 (2015) (noting “the meaning of
the second clause is less clear” than that of the first clause).
23 For a discussion of this textual difference in the disparate impact context, see infra notes 147-155 and accompanying
text.
24 42 U.S.C. § 2000e(b); Pregnancy Discrimination, EEOC, https://www.eeoc.gov/pregnancy-discrimination (last
visited June 8, 2021).
25 42 U.S.C. § 2000e(f); 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-16(a); Jackson v. Modly, 949 F.3d 763, 772 (D.C. Cir. 2020).
26 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-1 (noting religious institutions may to employ “individuals of a particular religion to perform
work connected with the carrying . . . of their activities”); see also id. § 2000e-2(e)(2). The Constitution may also
constrain some employment laws. As interpreted by the Supreme Court, the Constitution provides a “ministerial
exception” forbidding regulation of religious institutions’ selection and management of leaders and others performing
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Elements of a PDA Claim: Adverse Action and Motive
Title VII bars employers from taking adverse employment actions, including “fail[ure] or
refus[al] to hire or . . . discharge [of] any individual” and discrimination in “compensation, terms,
conditions, or privileges of employment.”27 Accordingly, to make out a Title VII claim (including
a PDA claim) an employee must generally show that she suffered an adverse employment action,
such as termination, discipline, loss of pay, or other mistreatment.28 Involuntary reassignment or
leave may also violate the PDA, including mandatory light duty when the employee did not
request or require it.29 The Supreme Court noted that “stereotypical assumptions” about pregnant
workers’ abilities “would, of course, be inconsistent with Title VII’s goal of equal employment
opportunity.”30
Under the PDA, courts commonly consider claims that bias against pregnancy motivated an
employee’s discharge, threat of discharge, or promotion denial.31 In these cases, the parties do not
generally dispute that an employer has taken an adverse action. Resolution here turns on
establishing an impermissible motive: acting because of pregnancy.32
To establish motive, courts generally use a burden-shifting standard. After the employee identifies
an adverse action, the burden then shifts to the employer to prove it had a “legitimate,
nondiscriminatory reason” for its decision.33 The question of motive is a factual one, and an
employee may prevail if she shows that the proffered motive is pretextual.34 She may prevail even
if there were multiple motives—both a discriminatory motive and a legitimate one. It is enough if
pregnancy was “a motivating factor” in the adverse decision, even if “other factors also motivated
the practice.”35 Pregnancy-motivated adverse action is discriminatory even if the employer
characterizes its decision as protective or benign.36

religious functions. Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church & Sch. v. EEOC, 565 U.S. 171, 188, 196 (2012)
(holding ministerial exceptions limited application of ADA to religious teacher and noting lower courts’ application of
the doctrine to Title VII claims).
27 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(a)(1).
28 EEOC Enforcement Guidance, supra note 3; Asmo v. Keane, Inc., 471 F.3d 588, 592 (6th Cir. 2006).
29 Richards v. City of Topeka, 173 F.3d 1247, 1250 (10th Cir. 1999); Carney v. Martin Luther Home, Inc., 824 F.2d
643, 648 (8th Cir. 1987); see also S. REP. NO. 95-331 at 3-4 (1978) (report from the Committee on Human Resources to
accompany the Senate version of the PDA, S. 995) (stating that when pregnant employees are “not able to work for
medical reasons, they must be accorded the same rights, leave privileges and other benefits, as other workers who are
disabled from working”).
30 California Fed. Sav. & Loan Ass’n v. Guerra, 479 U.S. 272, 290 (1987).
31 Hercule v. Wendy’s of N.E. Fla., Inc., No. 10-80248-CIV, 2010 WL 1882181, at *5 (S.D. Fla. May 11, 2010);
Germain v. Cty. of Suffolk, No. 07-CV-2523ADSARL, 2009 WL 1514513, at *6 (E.D.N.Y. May 29, 2009); Poague v.
Huntsville Wholesale Furniture, No. 7:18-CV-00005-LSC, 2020 WL 6363983, at *3 (N.D. Ala. Oct. 29, 2020).
32 Germain, 2009 WL 1514513, at *5.
33 Etsitty v. Utah Transit Auth., 502 F.3d 1215, 1220 (10th Cir. 2007).
34 In considering whether an employer mistreated an employee “because of” pregnancy, federal courts generally apply
the same legal standards they would in a sex or race discrimination case. If they find no direct evidence of anti-
pregnancy bias, courts turn to the burden-shifting framework announced in McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411
U.S. 792, 802-04 (1973). A PDA plaintiff must show that an employer knew of her pregnancy or related condition,
prove that she satisfactorily performed her job, identify an adverse employment action, and point to circumstances
suggesting the employer acted because of pregnancy. See Lewis v. City of Union City, Georgia, 918 F.3d 1213, 1221
(11th Cir. 2019).
3542 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(m). See also Spees v. James Marine, Inc., 617 F.3d 380, 390 (6th Cir. 2010).
36 Int’l Union, United Auto., Aerospace & Agr. Implement Workers of Am., UAW v. Johnson Controls, Inc., 499 U.S.
187, 199 (1991) (holding that barring fertile women from jobs with chemical exposure violates the PDA, and stating
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Without a clear connection between pregnancy and the adverse action, a court will consider facts
that tend to support a finding of intentional discrimination, such as the timing of an adverse
action. For example, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held that, for an employee
allegedly disciplined and fired one month after disclosing her pregnancy, “the sequence of events
. . . is sufficient to raise the inference of discrimination.”37
As in other discrimination cases, courts will recognize an inference of discrimination when
employers fail to give credible, consistent reasons for the adverse action.38 An employer may lack
credibility, for example, when managers’ given reasons for firing a pregnant employee change
after she files suit.39 Inconsistencies may also help show that an employer’s claim that a pregnant
worker could not do her job are pretextual. One employer at an auto parts store, for example,
allegedly decided on the position’s lifting requirement only after a worker became pregnant. In
setting the lifting requirement, the plaintiff claimed that the manager said: “‘what was the weight
I told you?’ then, after some indecision, decid[ed] that she must lift 50 pounds, and finally
conclud[ed] ‘oh well, I guess you don’t meet it. So you can’t come back to work.’”40
Also relevant in determining motive are any unfavorable comments made by supervisors about an
employee’s pregnancy. Plaintiffs have recounted statements about a worker’s appearance,
disapproval of her pregnancy, or disparagement of her working ability. Alleged comments noted
in PDA cases include “take your fat pregnant ass home,”41 “[y]ou picked a poor time to get
pregnant,”42 or, to a recently married employee, “we feared something like this would happen.”43
One manager allegedly told a pregnant worker “if she wanted to keep her job, she should not stay
pregnant.”44 Such statements may support the employee’s claim that an employer acted with a
discriminatory motive.
Pregnancy Harassment
In addition to barring adverse actions such as reassignment or termination, Title VII makes it
illegal for an employer to subject an employee to a hostile work environment because of
pregnancy.45 This requires evidence of “severe or pervasive conduct such that it constitutes a
change in the terms and conditions of employment,” although the plaintiff need not identify a

that “the absence of a malevolent motive does not convert a facially discriminatory policy into a neutral policy with a
discriminatory effect”).
37 Lenzi v. Systemax, Inc., 944 F.3d 97, 108 (2d Cir. 2019); see also Asmo v. Keane, Inc., 471 F.3d 588, 594 (6th Cir.
2006) 594 (holding two-month window “sufficient to establish a link between [employee’s] pregnancy and her
termination”).
38 Legg v. Ulster Cty., 820 F.3d 67, 70 (2d Cir. 2016).
39 Asmo, 471 F.3d at 596 (pointing to evidence suggesting inconsistent statement and reversing summary judgment).
40 Stansfield v. O’Reilly Auto., Inc., No. CIV.A. H-04-4161, 2006 WL 1030010, at *3 (S.D. Tex. Apr. 19, 2006)
(denying defendant’s summary judgment motion).
41 Hercule v. Wendy’s of N.E. Fla., Inc., No. 10-80248-CIV, 2010 WL 1882181, at *1, (S.D. Fla. May 11, 2010
(denying motion to dismiss)).
42 Villanueva v. Christiana Care Health Servs., Inc., No. CIV.A. 04-258-JJF, 2007 WL 188111, at *2 (D. Del. Jan. 23,
2007) (denying motion for summary judgment, holding alleged comments provided circumstantial evidence of
discriminatory termination).
43 Hamilton v. Southland Christian Sch., Inc., 680 F.3d 1316, 1320 (11th Cir. 2012) (holding alleged statements
provide circumstantial evidence of discriminatory motive for termination, precluding summary judgement for
employer).
44 Townsend v. Town of Brusly, 421 F. Supp. 3d 352, 360 (M.D. La. 2019).
45 Harris, 510 U.S. at 21; Harassment, EEOC, https://www.eeoc.gov/harassment (last visited June 8, 2021).
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discrete adverse employment action.46 The Supreme Court has described such a workplace as
“permeated with discriminatory intimidation, ridicule, and insult that is sufficiently severe or
pervasive to alter the conditions of the victim’s employment and create an abusive working
environment.”47
A single derogatory comment is rarely enough to show harassment.48 Furthermore, it is not
enough that a particular employee found the workplace unwelcoming; a harassment claim
requires that an “objectively reasonable person would find” the workplace hostile or abusive.49
Assessment of the working environment is fact-specific, and courts must examine “the totality of
the circumstances.”50 These circumstances may include the frequency of the offensive conduct, its
severity, whether it is physically threatening or humiliating, and whether it interferes with job
performance.51 Taking into account all of the circumstances means that a court will assess
pregnancy-based epithets and mistreatment together with any abuse that is not overtly pregnancy-
related, such as closer supervision or excessive discipline.52
In the context of pregnancy, hostile treatment claims often include allegations of disparaging
comments or threats. In one case, for example, plaintiff claimed that a manager “beg[a]n referring
to [plaintiff] as ‘prego,’” and urged her to quit or go on disability.53 A manager pressuring an
employee to terminate her pregnancy may also support a harassment claim.54
Light Duty and Light Duty Requests
One particular form of discrimination, discriminatory denials of light duty, commonly arises in
the pregnancy context. While other claims focus on employers’ imposing involuntary restrictions
on pregnant workers (such as changed job duties or forced leave), these claims, conversely, allege
that employers denied a request for light duty or other job modifications. Under the PDA,
pregnant women who “are not able to work for medical reasons . . . must be accorded the same
rights, leave privileges and other benefits, as other workers who are disabled from working.”55
The PDA does not require accommodations, but courts must evaluate whether, in these cases,
managers contravened the PDA’s requirement that pregnant workers be treated the same as other
employees similar in their ability to work. Workers may sometimes show this comparison by
identifying other employees given the accommodation they seek. In a mail handling facility, for
example, a pregnant worker alleged that supervisors declined to let her perform some of her tasks
while seated, even though injured employees were allowed this accommodation.56

46 Gorski v. New Hampshire Dep’t of Corr., 290 F.3d 466, 469 (1st Cir. 2002).
47 Harris, 510 U.S. at 21.
48 Cf. Gorski, 290 F.3d at 471 (holding allegation of seven harassing comments adequate to survive summary
judgment).
49 Gorski, 290 F.3d at 474.
50 Hyde v. K.B. Home, Inc., 355 F. App’x 266, 272 (11th Cir. 2009). See also Gorski, 290 F.3d at 471.
51 Miller v. Kenworth of Dothan, Inc., 277 F.3d 1269, 1276 (11th Cir. 2002).
52 Zisumbo v. McCleodUSA Telecomms. Servs., Inc., 154 F. App’x 715, 726 (10th Cir. 2005).
53 Id. (reversing summary judgment granted for employer).
54 Bergstrom-Ek v. Best Oil Co., 153 F.3d 851, 854-55 (8th Cir. 1998) (discussing plaintiff’s allegation that employer
told her at least six times to get an abortion, calling her at home and offering to pay for it); Hercule v. Wendy’s of N.E.
Fla., Inc., No. 10-80248-CIV, 2010 WL 1882181, at *1 (S.D. Fla. May 11, 2010) (describing allegation that manager
encouraged plaintiff to have an abortion).
55 S. REP. NO. 95-331 at 3 (1978).
56 Ensley-Gaines v. Runyon, 100 F.3d 1220, 1223 (6th Cir. 1996) (reversing summary judgment).
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Courts will also consider whether an employer has changed work requirements, making them
more strenuous than before a worker’s pregnancy. One manager, for example, allegedly forbade
an employee to seek help in lifting, even though she did so before she became pregnant, and even
though managers allowed others to seek assistance.57
“Related Medical Conditions” and the PDA’s Scope
In protecting “pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions,”58 the PDA reaches
circumstances beyond pregnancy per se. As one court put it, discrimination “before, during, and
after . . . pregnancy” may violate the PDA.59 The EEOC has stated that “the PDA covers all
aspects of pregnancy and all aspects of employment, including hiring, firing, promotion, health
insurance benefits, and treatment.”60
Pre-pregnancy considerations include adverse actions taken on account of a woman’s plans to
start a family or seek fertility treatments. For example, the Seventh Circuit concluded that a
worker could bring a PDA claim after her employer allegedly fired her for taking time off for
fertility treatments, telling her “that the termination was ‘in [her] best interest due to [her] health
condition.’”61
In another case of pre-pregnancy discrimination, a federal district court in Illinois rejected the
employer’s argument that the PDA did not cover discrimination based on inability to become
pregnant.62 It held that the PDA protected an employee who alleged that her supervisor “verbally
abused her” about her fertility treatments, questioned whether she could manage pregnancy and
career, and treated her sick leave applications less favorably than other workers’ requests.63 While
the court acknowledged that allowing claims only for pregnant women and excluding those
seeking pregnancy might be a “common-sense reading of the PDA’s language,” it also pointed to
the Act’s legislative history.64 One of the measure’s sponsors explained that women historically
endured discrimination “[b]ecause of their capacity to become pregnant,” and “because they
might become pregnant.”65
In a similar vein, employers may not bar women of childbearing age under “fetal protection”
policies designed to prevent exposure to toxins linked to birth defects.66 Such a policy violates

57 Stansfield v. O’Reilly Auto., Inc., No. CIV.A. H-04-4161, 2006 WL 1030010, at *5-6 (S.D. Tex. Apr. 19, 2006).
58 42 U.S.C. § 2000e(k).
59 Pacourek v. Inland Steel Co., 858 F. Supp. 1393, 1402 (N.D. Ill. 1994) (quoting legislative history and holding PDA
protected employee seeking fertility treatments); see also Hall v. Nalco Co., 534 F.3d 644, 649 (7th Cir. 2008).
60 EEOC Enforcement Guidance, supra note 3.
61 Hall, F.3d at 649 (rejecting district court’s conclusion that because infertility is gender-neutral, plaintiff could not
pursue a Title VII claim).
62 Id.; see also Batchelor v. Merck & Co., 651 F. Supp. 2d 818, 830 (N.D. Ind. 2008) (holding PDA protects against
discrimination based on a woman’s plans to become pregnant).
63 Pacourek, 858 F. Supp. at 1401.
64 Id. at 1402.
65 Id. (quoting 124 Cong. Rec. 38574 (daily ed., Oct. 14, 1978) (statement of Rep. Ronald Sarasin, House manager of
PDA legislation). But see In re Union Pac. R.R. Emp. Pracs. Litig., 479 F.3d 936, 941 (8th Cir. 2007) (holding medical
plan’s exclusion of infertility treatment does not violate the PDA because “[i]nfertility is strikingly different from
pregnancy”) (internal quotation marks omitted).
66 Int’l Union, United Auto., Aerospace & Agr. Implement Workers of Am., UAW v. Johnson Controls, Inc., 499 U.S.
187, 193 (1991).
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Title VII’s bar on sex-based classifications, the Supreme Court has observed, and the PDA
“bolster[s]” this conclusion.67
Courts have sometimes cited the PDA’s reference to “related medical conditions” as showing its
coverage exceeds pregnancy per se. The Sixth Circuit did so, holding that the “plain language of
the statute” barred discrimination because a worker had considered an abortion.68 Courts have
applied the PDA to various postpregnancy conditions. A woman may not be fired because of
recent childbirth, for example.69 Postpartum medical complications, similarly, are impermissible
grounds for employment action.70 As one court put it, the PDA encompasses “conditions related
to pregnancy that occur after the actual pregnancy.”71 A woman with a postpartum condition must
be treated as are other workers with nonpregnancy illnesses.72 Courts have held that postpartum
depression and a disrupted menstrual cycle, for example, fall within this rule.73
There has been disagreement among courts on whether lactation is a pregnancy-related condition
covered by the PDA. At least initially, the prevailing view among reviewing district courts was
that breastfeeding was ineligible for PDA protection, as it was not viewed as a medical condition
related to pregnancy or childbirth, but instead related to subsequent child care.74 At least two
federal courts of appeals have also opined, either when resolving a dispositive issue of the case or
in nonbinding dicta, that breastfeeding is not a protected medical condition under the PDA.75
More recent court decisions, including one by a federal court of appeals, have concluded
otherwise,76 leading one district court to observe in 2016 that there was a “trend” by reviewing

67 Id. at 197-98 (holding battery manufacturer may not preclude women of childbearing age from employment on the
grounds that chemical exposure would be dangerous to an unborn child should a worker become pregnant); see also
EEOC Enforcement Guidance, supra note 3.
68 Turic v. Holland Hosp., Inc., 85 F.3d 1211, 1214 (6th Cir. 1996).
69 Neessen v. Arona Corp., 2010 WL 1731652, at *7 (N.D. Iowa Apr. 30, 2010); Shafrir v. Ass’n of Reform Zionists of
Am., 998 F. Supp. 355, 363 (S.D.N.Y. 1998).
70 Reilly v. Revlon, Inc., 620 F. Supp. 2d 524, 544 (S.D.N.Y. 2009).
71 Id.
72 Id. at 545.
73 Id. at 544 (holding PDA covers postpartum depression); Harper v. Thiokol Chem. Corp., 619 F.2d 489, 493 (5th Cir.
1980) (holding employer’s policy of denying post-pregnancy employment until worker had returned to a normal
menstrual cycle violated PDA). See also Infante v. Ambac Fin. Grp., No. 03 CV 8880 (KMW), 2006 WL 44172, at *4
(S.D.N.Y. Jan. 5, 2006), aff’d, 257 F. App’x 432 (2d Cir. 2007) (noting that plaintiff’s thyroid condition, if exacerbated
by recent pregnancy, might fall within the PDA’s purview).
74 See, e.g., Fejes v. Gilpin Ventures, Inc., 960 F. Supp. 1487, 1492 (D. Colo. 1997) (observing that reviewing courts
had “uniformly held that needs or conditions of the child which require the mother's presence are not within the scope
of the PDA”); Jacobson v. Regent Assisted Living, Inc., No. CV-98-564-ST, 1999 WL 373790, at *11 (D. Or. Apr. 9,
1999); Wallace v. Pyro Mining Co., 789 F. Supp. 867, 869-70 (W.D.Ky.1990) (examining the text and legislative
history of the PDA and stating that “[w]hile it may be that breast-feeding and weaning are natural concomitants of
pregnancy and childbirth, they are not ‘medical conditions’ related thereto. . . . Nothing in the Pregnancy
Discrimination Act, or Title VII, obliges employers to accommodate the child-care concerns of breast-feeding female
workers by providing additional breast-feeding leave not available to male workers.”), aff’d without opinion, 951 F.2d
351 (6th Cir.1991).
75 Derungs v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 374 F.3d 428, 438 (6th Cir. 2004) (assessing state law claim and stating in dicta
that the PDA would not reach breastfeeding); Wallace v. Pyro Min. Co., 951 F.2d 351, 1991 WL 270823, at *1 (6th
Cir. 1991) (per curiam) (table, text in Westlaw)(stating in dicta that the PDA would not cover breastfeeding); Notter v.
N. Hand Prot., a Div. of Siebe, Inc., 89 F.3d 829 (4th Cir. 1996) (describing aspects of Fourth Circuit’s prior ruling in
Barrash v. Bowen, 846 F.2d 927, 931 (4th Cir.1988) (per curiam) about the scope of the PDA as “dicta without any
citation of authority,” but maintaining that the earlier case “stands for the narrow proposition that breastfeeding is not a
medical condition related to pregnancy or to childbirth”).
76 EEOC v. Houston Funding II, Ltd., 717 F.3d 425, 428 (5th Cir. 2013); Hicks v. City of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, 870
F.3d 1253, 1258-59 (11th Cir. 2017); Allen-Brown v. District of Columbia, 174 F. Supp. 3d 463, 479 (D.D.C. 2016);
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courts to “hold that lactation is a ‘condition related to pregnancy’” under the PDA. Courts taking
this view have emphasized, for example, that a woman unable to breastfeed may experience pain,
infection, or other medical complications.77
Pregnancy Accommodation and Young v. United Parcel Service
At its core, the PDA calls for pregnant workers to be treated the same as other similarly situated
employees.78 Yet after the PDA’s passage, courts struggled to decide whether and when the Act
requires accommodations for pregnant workers in order for them to be treated the same as other
workers similar in their ability to work. Pregnant women often face work restrictions, such as
lifting constraints, limits on chemical exposure, a need for more bathroom breaks, or other
scheduling requirements.79 The PDA does not forbid employers from granting a pregnant
worker’s request for an accommodation of these constraints.80 It also does not explicitly require
the employer to make any changes to workplace conditions or rules to suit a pregnant worker.
Whether the PDA requires employers to offer pregnant women the same accommodations that
they extend to other workers for other reasons is a question that the Supreme Court took up in its
2015 decision in Young v. United Parcel Service, holding that employers may refuse pregnant
women certain accommodations given to other workers. The workers’ differing circumstances,
the Court held, mattered in the analysis.81
At least prior to Young, courts varied in defining which employees (among those who had
received accommodations for reasons other than pregnancy) pregnant workers could cite as
comparators. Some courts concluded that employers must treat pregnant women the same as
others who request light duty for off-the-job injury, but held that employees injured on the job
were not applicable comparators.82 Other courts concluded that any accommodated employees
were relevant.83 As the Sixth Circuit put it, “instead of merely recognizing that discrimination on
the basis of pregnancy constitutes unlawful sex discrimination under Title VII,” the PDA
provided additional protection “by expressly requiring that employers provide the same treatment
[for pregnancy] as provided to ‘other persons not so affected but similar in their ability or
inability to work.’”84 Because ability to work is the only stated grounds for comparison, the Sixth

Barnes v. Hewlett Packard Co., 846 F. Supp. 442, 445 (D.Md.1994).
77 Allen-Brown, 174 F. Supp. 3d at 479. See also Mayer v. Prof’l Ambulance, LLC, 211 F. Supp. 3d 408, 417 (D.R.I.
2016).
78 42 U.S.C. § 2000e(k).
79 Bradley A. Areheart, Accommodating Pregnancy, 67 ALA. L. REV. 1125, 1133 (2016) (“The most commonly
requested accommodations include frequent bathroom breaks, limits on heavy lifting, and limitations on overtime
work.”); Jackson v. J.R. Simplot Co., 666 F. App’x 739, 740 (10th Cir. 2016) (unpublished, nonprecedential opinion
noting employee’s doctor restricted her exposure to three chemicals present at her workplace).
80 California Fed. Sav. & Loan Ass’n, 479 U.S. at 285 (noting “Congress intended the PDA to be a floor beneath which
pregnancy disability benefits may not drop—not a ceiling above which they may not rise.”) (internal quotation marks
and citation omitted).
81 Young v. United Parcel Serv., Inc., 575 U.S. 206 (2015).
82 Serednyj v. Beverly Healthcare, LLC, 656 F.3d 540, 548-549 (7th Cir. 2011) (holding no PDA violation where
employer accommodated employees injured on the job and those entitled under the ADA but not pregnant workers);
abrogated by Young, 575 U.S. 206; Spivey v. Beverly Enterprises, Inc., 196 F.3d 1309, 1313 (11th Cir. 1999) (holding
employees injured on the job are not comparable to pregnant workers for PDA purposes), abrogated by Young, 575
U.S. 206.
83 Ensley-Gaines v. Runyon, 100 F.3d 1220, 1226 (6th Cir. 1996); see also EEOC v. Horizon/CMS Healthcare Corp.,
220 F.3d 1184, 1196 (10th Cir. 2000).
84 Ensley-Gaines, 100 F.3d at 1226.
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Circuit held that if an employer allowed light duty after on-the-job injuries, it must similarly
accommodate pregnant workers.85
In Young, the Supreme Court addressed the issue of light duty and pregnant workers, clarifying
that employers must provide accommodations for pregnant women only in limited
circumstances.86 As discussed in further detail below, the Court rejected the view that the PDA
required employers to extend to pregnant workers every accommodation given to others with
similar needs. Instead, employers could rely on workers’ differing circumstances to justify
disparate treatment. Federal courts have wrestled with the application of Young to workers’
claims that, when it comes to pregnancy accommodations, they have been treated less favorably
than other employees similar in their ability to work.
The Young Court’s Decision
In Young, the Supreme Court considered a United Parcel Service (UPS) delivery driver’s request
for light duty. Young requested light duty after she became pregnant and her doctor restricted her
from heavy lifting. UPS denied her request, even though it offered light duty to some other
groups of workers, including those who were injured on the job, those who lost Department of
Transportation licensure, or those who had disabilities recognized under the Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA). Young claimed pregnancy discrimination, asserting that UPS’s refusal to
extend the same privilege to pregnant employees who were similar in their ability to work
violated the PDA.
The Court agreed that the PDA requires a court to compare accommodations given pregnant and
nonpregnant workers in order to implement the statute’s requirement that pregnant workers be
treated as favorably as others similar in their ability to work. In the Court’s view, the PDA entails
more than “[s]imply including pregnancy among Title VII’s protected traits,” because that
approach “would not overturn Gilbert in full.”87 The PDA’s second phrase—that “women
affected by pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions shall be treated the same for all
employment-related purposes . . . as other persons not so affected but similar in their ability or
inability to work”88—would be rendered “superfluous” if it were inappropriate to compare
pregnant employees and other accommodated workers.89
The Court recognized that UPS’s accommodation of other workers who needed light duty raised
the possibility that it might be obligated to accommodate the plaintiff. Ultimately, in its six-to-
three decision, with Justice Alito concurring, the Court recognized a very narrow accommodation
requirement. The Court held that any workplace adjustments required for pregnancy will depend
not just on whether an employer accommodates other workers, but why it does so. Although UPS
granted various accommodations, the record did not show whether other workers were truly
“similar in their ability or inability to work,” within the Court’s understanding of the PDA.90 In
the Court’s view, “similar in . . . inability to work” included inquiry into the reasons for that
inability.91

85 Id.
86 Young, 575 U.S. at 206.
87 Id. at 227.
88 42 U.S.C. § 2000e(k).
89 Young, 575 U.S at 226.
90 Id. at 237-241.
91 Id.
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To allow a pregnant employee to point to any accommodation of another worker as entitling her
to light duty, the Court held, would be to grant a sort of “most-favored-nation” status to pregnant
women.92 It would be too much, the Court reasoned, if “[a]s long as an employer provides one or
two workers with an accommodation—say, those with particularly hazardous jobs, or those
whose workplace presence is particularly needed, or those who have worked at the company for
many years, or those who are over the age of 55—then it must provide similar accommodations
to all pregnant workers.”93
Accordingly, while Young could rely on other workers’ accommodations to help establish a prima
facie case of discrimination, the Court held that those accommodations did not necessarily show
that she was entitled to a pregnancy accommodation.94 The employer could still prevail by
explaining its sex-neutral reasons for accommodating others. In this case, UPS had unique
reasons for offering each type of accommodation.95 UPS wanted to implement the ADA, to
comply with collective bargaining agreements, and to continue to employ workers who—unlike
Young—had lost their licensure but not their ability to lift packages.96 Such reasons, the Court
surmised, might show on remand that UPS did not single out pregnant women for exclusion from
its accommodation procedures.97
In addition to an assessment of the employer’s reasons for treating pregnant workers less
favorably than others, the Court announced one more step in the PDA analysis: a holistic view of
an employer’s accommodations. A court should consider “the combined effects of” an employer’s
policies and decide if they significantly burdened pregnant employees in a way that suggests
intentional discrimination. “[E]vidence that the employer accommodates a large percentage of
nonpregnant workers while failing to accommodate a large percentage of pregnant employees”
would suggest such a burden.98 A court would then consider “the strength of [the employer’s]
justifications for each [accommodation] when combined,”99 and the employer’s reasons must be
“sufficiently strong” to justify the burden.100 If the reasons are not sufficiently strong, the Court
held, the circumstances may suggest pretext and “give rise to an inference of intentional
discrimination.”101 Cost alone, the Court added, would not “normally” meet this test.102
The Court remanded Young’s case to the Fourth Circuit to consider the issue.103 The Court
acknowledged that its assessment of accommodations was “limited to the Pregnancy
Discrimination Act context,” but considered it “consistent with our longstanding rule that a
plaintiff can use circumstantial proof to rebut an employer’s apparently legitimate,

92 Id. at 225.
93 Id. at 221.
94 Young, 575 U.S at 229.
95 Id. at 218-221.
96 Id. at 215-216, 218.
97 Id. at 232.
98 Id. at 229-230.
99 Id. at 231.
100 Young, 575 U.S at 230.
101 Id.
102 Id. at 229.
103 Id. at 232.
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nondiscriminatory reasons for treating individuals within a protected class differently than those
outside the protected class.”104
Justice Alito, concurring in the judgment, agreed that a mere antidiscrimination rule would render
the second phrase of the PDA, which “raises several difficult questions of interpretation,”
superfluous.105 In Justice Alito’s view, the PDA required courts to compare pregnant workers
seeking an accommodation to workers doing identical or similar work.106 In addition, courts
should look to workers “similar in relation to the ability to work”—that is, courts must consider
the reason for that inability.107 In support of this constrained view of accommodations, Justice
Alito pointed out that the PDA does not use the broad language that the ADA and Title VII’s
protections for religious practice employ, both of which explicitly require some
“accommodation” unless it would impose an “undue hardship.”108
In dissent, Justice Scalia concluded that the PDA did not offer pregnant workers protection
exceeding that of other protected classes.109 In amending Title VII, Congress made clear that
pregnancy discrimination is sex discrimination, but it did not create, in Justice Scalia’s view, any
“freestanding ban on pregnancy discrimination.”110 Accordingly, he concluded, “pregnant women
are entitled to accommodations on the same terms as other workers with disabling conditions.”111
This means that a court must consider the reasons for the employees’ inability to work when
comparing pregnant and nonpregnant workers. An employer need not offer pregnant workers the
adjustments offered for disability or injury, although it may not “single[] pregnancy out for
disfavor” as did the benefits plan in Gilbert.112 The PDA’s second phrase serves to add, in Justice
Scalia’s judgment, “clarity,” not a new substantive protection.113 Justice Kennedy joined this
dissent and, in a separate dissent, pointed out that at UPS “[m]any other workers with health-
related restrictions were not accommodated either.”114
Lower Courts’ Application of Young
Under the PDA, plaintiffs may raise both a “traditional” Title VII claim (that an employer
imposed some adverse action with a discriminatory motive or harassed an employee) and a PDA-
specific claim (that the employer did not accommodate pregnant women as it did others of similar
working ability).115 Young expounded on a test for the second type of claim, requiring courts to
evaluate whether accommodation policies excluding pregnant workers “impose a significant
burden on pregnant workers” and the “legitimate, nondiscriminatory reasons” for the policies are
not “sufficiently strong to justify the burden.”116 This second type of claim has proven difficult to

104 Id. at 230.
105 Id. at 233 (Alito, J., concurring).
106 Young, 575 U.S at 234. (Alito, J., concurring).
107 Id. at 233 (Alito, J., concurring).
108 Id. (Alito, J., concurring).
109 Id. at 244 (Scalia, J., dissenting, joined by Kennedy and Thomas, JJ.).
110 Id. (Scalia, J., dissenting).
111 Id. at 242 (Scalia, J., dissenting).
112 Young, 575 U.S at 246 (Scalia, J., dissenting).
113 Id. at 245 (Scalia, J., dissenting).
114 Id. at 251 (Kennedy, J., dissenting).
115 42 U.S.C. § 2000e(k); Allen-Brown v. District of Columbia, 174 F. Supp. 3d 463, 475 (D.D.C. 2016).
116 Young, 575 U.S. at 229 (internal quotation mark omitted); see also Allen-Brown, 174 F. Supp. 3d at 475 (applying
Young).
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adjudicate.117 Young does not provide a hard-and-fast rule for assessing pregnancy
accommodations, given its focus on case-by-case analysis of an employer’s accommodations for
nonpregnant workers in comparison with pregnant ones. What is clear from Young is that
employers may sometimes offer light duty or other work modifications to some workers and
exclude pregnant workers from those accommodations, at least if pregnant women are not singled
out without justification.118
Courts have struggled with application of the Young test; as one Eleventh Circuit judge has
pointed out, the Supreme Court’s decision left “gaps . . . in our understanding of how trial courts
should proceed in PDA cases once a prima facie case is made.”119 Business leaders, too, note that
employers “face great uncertainty” about pregnancy accommodations.120
Part of the difficulty arises from the complex facts in Young. Young pointed to numerous,
dissimilar workers whom UPS accommodated, including some accommodated because of the
ADA and others (such as those who lost licensure) accommodated for unknown reasons.121 As a
result, lower courts applying Young have struggled to determine which types of accommodations
matter in the PDA context.122 The ultimate inquiry, however, remains the question of “whether the
employer’s actions gave rise to valid inference of unlawful discrimination.”123
At the very least, Young made it harder for pregnant workers to prevail in a claim that they should
be accommodated because other workers are accommodated. Young overturned the rule,
previously applied in some courts, that pregnant workers could show discrimination by
identifying other employees, even those injured on the job, as examples of how pregnant workers
must be accommodated.124 Instead, as the Second Circuit noted, “[w]hether it is appropriate to
infer a discriminatory intent from the pattern of exceptions in a particular workplace will depend
on the inferences that can be drawn from that pattern and the credibility of the employer’s
purported reasons for adopting them.”125 In considering the case of a pregnant corrections officer,
the Second Circuit went on to hold that she had shown potential discrimination where her
employer accommodated some injured employees, but no pregnant workers, with light duty.126

117 One commentator, stating that Young’s “holding is complicated and not perfectly clear,” concluded that employers
may be inclined to voluntarily extend pregnancy accommodations, “being safe rather than sorry.” Areheart, supra note
79 at 1128 n.7.
118 Young, 575 U.S. at 229.
119 Durham v. Rural/Metro Corp., 955 F.3d 1279, 1288 (11th Cir. 2020) (Boggs, J., concurring).
120 U.S. Chamber of Commerce, U.S. Chamber Key Vote Letter on the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (Sept. 14,
2020), https://www.uschamber.com/letters-congress/us-chamber-key-vote-letter-the-pregnant-workers-fairness-act (last
visited June 14, 2021).
121 Durham, 955 F.3d at 1288 (Boggs, J., concurring); Lewis v. City of Union City, Georgia, 918 F.3d 1213, 1228 n.14
(11th Cir. 2019) (noting Young identified seven types of accommodated workers, including some accommodated
because of other laws or collective bargaining agreements).
122 Durham, 955 F.3d at 1288 (Boggs, J., concurring). One commenter concluded that, under Young, employers who
accommodate some employees and exclude pregnant employees face “substantial liability risk.” Sara Alexander, Labor
Pains: The Inadequacies of Current Federal Pregnancy Laws and the Alternative Routes to Accommodation, 37 MISS.
C. L. REV. 152, 171 (2019).
123 Durham, 955 F.3d at 1288 (Boggs, J., concurring) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted).
124 Young v. United Parcel Serv., Inc., 575 U.S. 206, 218 (2015); Ensley-Gaines v. Runyon, 100 F.3d 1220, 1226 (6th
Cir. 1996); see also EEOC v. Horizon/CMS Healthcare Corp., 220 F.3d 1184, 1196 (10th Cir. 2000).
125 Legg v. Ulster Cty., 820 F.3d 67, 78 (2d Cir. 2016).
126 Id. at 70-71, 78.
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More facts were needed, the court concluded, to decide if the circumstances proved intentional
discrimination.127
In a similar case, a D.C. district court concluded that a police officer had raised an inference of
discrimination because her department awarded light duty to 11 other officers. The department
refused her request for light duty after she found it too painful to wear a bulletproof vest while
breastfeeding.128
For the most part, courts require pregnant workers to identify a very similar situation where the
employer accommodated a nonpregnant worker before they will infer discrimination against a
pregnant worker. For example, the Eleventh Circuit considered the case of an emergency medical
technician whose pregnancy imposed lifting restrictions.129 The employer had assigned others
with lifting restrictions to light duty, provided they were injured on the job.130 The court
concluded that although these employees were similar in their ability to work, the lower court
should have also considered the employer’s reasons for accommodating on-the-job injuries.131 It
remanded the case.132
Similarly, in an unpublished, nonprecedential opinion, the Tenth Circuit declined to find an
employer discriminated against a plaintiff when it gave other workers (and, for a time, the
plaintiff) light duty because of lifting restrictions but then denied light duty when plaintiff’s
doctor put limits on her exposure to chemicals.133 The court did not see a worker with a chemical
exposure restriction and one with a lifting restriction as “similar . . . in their ability to work.”134 A
proper comparator would be someone who received the type of accommodation the pregnant
employee requested, the Tenth Circuit held, rather than anyone who received an
accommodation.135
In Santos v. Wincor Nixdorf, Inc., the Fifth Circuit considered a project analyst’s claim of
discrimination after she moved to full-time telework during her pregnancy and faced termination
shortly afterward. She claimed that her performance matched that of other employees, proving
her pregnancy and accommodation request motivated the termination.136 In an unpublished,
nonprecedential opinion rejecting her claim, the Fifth Circuit stated that “it is not enough for
Santos to compare herself to other employees who did not ask for or receive work-from-home
accommodations of any sort.”137 The PDA required she identify another “employee was similarly
unable to work in the office for the same duration and at the same stage of his or her
employment.”138

127 Id. at 77-78.
128 Allen-Brown, 174 F. Supp. 3d at 477.
129 Durham, 955 F.3d at 1282.
130 Id. at 1283.
131 Id. at 1287.
132 Id.
133 Jackson v. J.R. Simplot Co., 666 F. App’x 739, 743 (10th Cir. 2016).
134 Id.
135 Id. (holding comparators relieved of heavy lifting did not compare well with plaintiff, who needed to avoid chemical
exposure).
136 Santos v. Wincor Nixdorf, Inc., 778 F. App’x 300, 303-304 (5th Cir. 2019).
137 Id. at 304.
138 Id. at 304.
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Furthermore, even after workers identify comparable employees, courts will permit employers to
justify treating them differently. The Second Circuit surmised, for example, that an employer’s
cited reason for accommodating nonpregnant employees, compliance with state-law requirements
for workers injured on the job, might (if true) justify a disparity.139
What about cases where there are no accommodated employees for comparison? All in all, when
an employer never (or hardly ever) grants work restrictions for nonpregnant employees, it
generally has no obligation to accommodate a pregnant employee.140 In those circumstances,
employers need not change job requirements on account of pregnancy. For example, shortly after
Young, the Fifth Circuit held in an unpublished, nonprecedential opinion that a nurse fired
because of pregnancy-related lifting conditions could not make out a PDA claim, given that the
employer did not accommodate any other nurses with lifting restrictions.141 As the Fifth Circuit
saw it, Young required an employee to show “that the employer did accommodate others ‘similar
in their ability or inability to work.’”142 Because the employee could not identify others who
received the modification she requested, she could not raise an inference of discrimination against
pregnant workers.
The Eleventh Circuit similarly decided in an unpublished, nonprecedential opinion that a hospital
did not discriminate in denying a pregnant program director work-from-home privileges when she
faced a high-risk pregnancy.143 The employee could not identify anyone else who had been
granted full-time telework. Young, the court held, required that the plaintiff show her employer
“did accommodate others similar in their ability or inability to work.”144 Without that, and
without any other evidence of “implausibilities, inconsistencies, incoherencies, or contradictions
in the employer’s proffered legitimate reasons for its action,” the worker could not show
discriminatory intent.145
Pregnancy and Disparate Impact Under Title VII
An archetypal Title VII claim alleges disparate treatment—that an employee suffered adverse
action or harassment because of a protected characteristic.146 Title VII also permits disparate
impact claims. In this type of claim, workers challenge a facially neutral employment practice,
alleging that it has a disproportionate effect on one group and cannot be justified by business
necessity.147 A disparate impact claimant does not have to show that an employer intended to

139 Legg v. Ulster Cty., 820 F.3d 67, 75-78 (2d Cir. 2016).
140 See, e.g., Luke v. CPlace Forest Park SNF, L.L.C., 747 F. App’x 978, 980 (5th Cir. 2019) (per curiam); Durham v.
Rural/Metro Corp., No. 4:16-CV-01604-ACA, 2020 WL 7024892, at *4 (N.D. Ala. Nov. 30, 2020); Everett v. Grady
Mem’l Hosp. Corp., 703 F. App’x 938, 948 (11th Cir. 2017); Lawson v. City of Pleasant Grove, No. 2:14-CV-0536-
JEO, 2016 WL 2338560, at *10 (N.D. Ala. Feb. 16, 2016), report and recommendation adopted, No. 2:14-CV-536-
KOB, 2016 WL 1719667 (N.D. Ala. Apr. 29, 2016).
141 Luke, 747 F. App’x at 980.
142 Id. (quoting Young).
143 Everett v. Grady Mem’l Hosp. Corp., 703 F. App’x 938, 948 (11th Cir. 2017).
144 Id. (quoting Young).
145 Id. (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). As before Young, a plaintiff need not draw comparisons with
other, nonpregnant employees if there is other circumstantial evidence of discrimination. Hamilton v. Southland
Christian Sch., Inc., 680 F.3d 1316, 1320 (11th Cir. 2012).
146 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(a)(1); EEOC Enforcement Guidance, supra note 3; Harris, 510 U.S. at 21.
147 Griggs v. Duke Power Co., 401 U.S. 424, 432 (1971); 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(k)(1). For further discussion of this
theory, see CRS Report R46534, The Civil Rights Act of 1964: An Overview, by Christine J. Back, at 72. A disparate
impact theory is distinct from the “significant burden” inquiry announced in Young, although, in the dissenters’ view,
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single anyone out based on a protected characteristic such as race or sex. Before the PDA
overruled Gilbert and set up special provisions for pregnancy, the Supreme Court had stated in
nonbinding dicta that pregnant women could bring disparate impact claims under Title VII.148 The
Court cited precedent establishing disparate impact theory for claims based on race and noted that
“a violation. . . can be established by proof of a discriminatory effect.”149
After the PDA amended Title VII, however, some have argued that the PDA precludes a typical
Title VII disparate impact claim because it requires that a pregnant worker be treated the same as
others.150 Thus, the argument goes, similar treatment cannot be a violation even if it has a
disparate impact.151 Nevertheless, several courts have considered these claims under the PDA.152
The Seventh Circuit emphasized that the PDA is “a definitional amendment” providing “no
substantive rule to govern pregnancy discrimination.”153 Accordingly, it did not undermine any
claims that Title VII generally provides. Others point out, in addition, that while the Young Court
noted the plaintiff had not brought a disparate impact claim (i.e., she alleged that UPS
intentionally denied accommodations for pregnant women, not that a neutral policy had a
disproportionate effect), it made no suggestion that such a claim is unavailable for pregnant
employees.154
Furthermore, EEOC enforcement guidance endorses application of a disparate impact theory to
pregnancy claims. Indeed, the agency states that while disparate impact claims usually require a
statistical showing of the harmful effect, “statistical evidence might not be required if it could be
shown that all or substantially all pregnant women would be negatively affected by the
challenged policy.”155
Other Federal Protections for Pregnant Workers
While Title VII and the PDA address certain forms of discrimination based on pregnancy, at least
two other federal laws also provide pregnancy-related protections. These protections generally

the Young test risks conflating disparate treatment (i.e., intentional discrimination) with disparate impact (i.e., use of
policies with discriminatory effects). 575 U.S. 249 (Scalia, J., dissenting) (noting “Title VII already has a framework
that allows judges to home in on a policy’s effects and justifications—disparate impact.”), 253 (Kennedy, J.,
dissenting) (“[T]he Court interprets the PDA in a manner that risks conflation of disparate impact with disparate
treatment by permitting a plaintiff to use a policy’s disproportionate burden on pregnant employees as evidence of
pretext.”)(internal quotation marks omitted).
148 Nashville Gas Co. v. Satty, 434 U.S. 136, 144 (1977). In considering Gilbert, the Court suggested that any disparate
impact based on a benefits program, rather than “employment opportunities or job status” would not support a disparate
impact claim.
149 Id. (the court held, however, that a pregnant worker’s claim about sick pay policies must fail under Gilbert).
150 Camille Herbert, Disparate Impact and Pregnancy: Title VII’s Other Accommodation Requirement, 24 J. GENDER,
SOCIAL POLICY & THE LAW 107, 137 (2015); Alexander, supra note 122 at 159; Cal. Fed. Sav. & Loan Ass’n v. Guerra,
479 U.S. 272, 298 n.1 (1987) (White, J., dissenting).
151 Cal. Fed. Sav. & Loan Ass’n, 479 U.S. at 298 n.1 (White, J., dissenting) (“Whatever remedies Title VII would
otherwise provide for victims of disparate impact, Congress expressly ordered pregnancy to be treated in the same
manner as other disabilities.”).
152 Smith v. F.W. Morse & Co., 76 F.3d 413, 420 (1st Cir. 1996); Scherr v. Woodland Sch. Cmty. Consol. Dist., 867
F.2d 974 (7th Cir. 1988); Germain v. Cty. of Suffolk, 672 F. Supp. 2d 319, 321 (E.D.N.Y. 2009).
153 Scherr, 867 F.2d at 978.
154 Young, 575 U.S. at 213; Herbert, supra note 150 at 138 (noting the Court’s conclusion that Young did not assert a
disparate impact claim and that the “Court did not suggest that she could not have brought such a claim.”).
155 EEOC Enforcement Guidance, supra note 3.
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involve accommodations for pregnant workers with disabilities—including pregnancy-related
medical conditions—and unpaid leave for illness and family care. In general, however, federal
law does not require paid leave for pregnant workers or accommodation for pregnant,
nondisabled workers. Eligible federal employees are entitled to paid parental leave.156
The Family and Medical Leave Act and Unpaid, Job-Protected
Leave
The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) requires certain employers to grant unpaid leave for
illness and some family responsibilities. Eligible workers may invoke the FMLA to, for example,
obtain time off work for pregnancy-related issues, including prenatal care.157 Most employees
may request up to 12 weeks of job-protected leave. The law does not require accommodations for
pregnant women in the workplace, however.
Not all workers are eligible for FMLA leave. Among other requirements, an employee must
accrue at least a year of service before taking leave, and employers of fewer than 50 employees
need not offer FMLA leave.158 Private- and public-sector employees are covered, but members of
the armed forces are not.159
The ADA, Pregnancy-Related Disabilities, and Accommodations
Title I of the ADA requires that employers reasonably accommodate workers with disabilities.160
The Rehabilitation Act creates similar obligations for federal employers and federally funded
programs.161 The EEOC enforces these provisions.162 Workers first request a workplace change
and engage in an “interactive process” with employers to work out a reasonable
accommodation.163 If employers fail to make an accommodation where required, employees may
file a complaint with the EEOC and, ultimately, sue in federal court.164 If they prevail on a claim
of discrimination or retaliation, employees may seek equitable relief and damages including back
pay, attorney’s fees, and punitive damages.165

156 5 U.S.C. § 6382; 5 C.F.R. § 630.1703.
157 29 U.S.C. § 2601; Walter E. Zink II & Jill Gradwohl Schroeder, Evaluating The Interplay Among FMLA, ADA and
Workers’ Comp Statutes Isn’t Child’s Play, 66 DEF. COUNS. J. 79, 84 (1999). For an overview of the FMLA, see CRS
Report R44274, The Family and Medical Leave Act: An Overview of Title I, by Sarah A. Donovan.
158 29 U.S.C. § 2611(2); nearly a decade ago, it was estimated that some 40 percent of workers are not covered. ABT
ASSOCIATES, FAMILY MEDICAL LEAVE IN 2012: TECHNICAL REPORT at i,
https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/OASP/legacy/files/TECHNICAL_REPORT_family_medical_leave_act_survey.
pdf. In 2012, 21% of FMLA leave was taken because of a pregnancy or a new child. Id. at ii.
159 29 U.S.C. §§ 2611(4); 203(e)(2).
160 42 U.S.C. § 12112(5).
161 29 U.S.C. §§ 791, 794; Khan v. Midwestern Univ., 879 F.3d 838, 843 (7th Cir. 2018), as amended on denial of
reh’g (Feb. 26, 2018) (applying Rehabilitation Act to medical student claiming pregnancy-related disability).
162 42 U.S.C. § 12117(a); EEOC Enforcement Guidance, supra note 3. The EEOC’s Office of Federal Operations
enforces Rehabilitation Act provisions for federal employees. Appeals, EEOC, https://www.eeoc.gov/federal-
sector/appeals (last visited June 14, 2021).
163 29 C.F.R. § 1630.2(o)(3).
164 Filing a Lawsuit, EEOC, https://www.eeoc.gov/filing-lawsuit (last visited June 14, 2021).
165 Kolstad v. Am. Dental Ass’n, 527 U.S. 526, 529, 534 (1999); Bruce v. City of Gainesville, Ga., 177 F.3d 949, 951
(11th Cir. 1999); 42 U.S.C. § 1981; 42 U.S.C. § 12205; Remedies for Employment Discrimination, EEOC,
https://www.eeoc.gov/remedies-employment-discrimination (last visited June 14, 2021).
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While pregnancy is not a disability within the meaning of the ADA,166 some women are eligible
for protection under the ADA for pregnancy-related conditions. A qualifying impairment is one
that “substantially limits one or more” of her “major life activities.”167 The ADA’s application to
pregnancy is a relatively recent development in the law. Until it was amended in 2008 to expand
the statutory definition of “disability,” the ADA generally did not protect workers with short-term
disabilities, such as those most commonly associated with pregnancy.168 Because the plaintiff
relied on pre-2008 law, the Supreme Court in the Young case did not decide whether the ADA
would require the lifting restriction that she requested.169
In recent years, courts have applied the ADA to cover postpartum depression,170 recovery from a
caesarian section,171 lifting restrictions,172 and pelvic pain.173 Other complications of pregnancy
include anemia, sciatica, carpal tunnel syndrome, gestational diabetes, nausea with severe
dehydration, abnormal heart rhythms, and swelling.174 These medical conditions can be
disabilities if they substantially affect major life activities.175 Once a woman shows she is a
person with a disability under the ADA, the law requires the employer to engage in an interactive
process, if needed, to identify a reasonable accommodation that will allow her to fulfill her
essential job duties.176
The EEOC reports, as examples of potential workplace accommodations for pregnancy
disabilities under the ADA and Rehabilitation Act, “allowing a pregnant worker to take more
frequent breaks, to keep a water bottle at a work station, or to use a stool; altering how job
functions are performed; or providing a temporary assignment to a light duty position.”177
Potential ADA accommodations for pregnancy, like other ADA accommodations, are considered
on a case-by-case basis, taking into account the worker’s impairment and workplace
circumstances.
An employer need not provide an accommodation that imposes an undue hardship on business
operations.178 Undue hardship, too, requires a case-by-case analysis taking into account such
factors as the nature and cost of the accommodation, the employer’s resources, and the size and
function of its workforce.179 The employer bears the burden of showing an undue hardship, once
the employee identifies a reasonable accommodation.180 Courts have been reluctant to delineate a

166 29 C.F.R. pt. 1630, app. § 1630.2(h)
167 Young, 575 U.S. at 253 (Kennedy, J., dissenting); 42 U.S.C. § 12102(1)(A).
168 42 U.S.C. § 12102(4)(A); ADA Amendments Act of 2008, Pub. L. No. 110-325, 122 Stat. 3553 (2008); Young, 575
U.S. at 252 (Kennedy, J., dissenting). The expanded disability coverage also applies under the Rehabilitation Act;
Alexander v. Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, 826 F.3d 544, 547, 423 (D.C. Cir. 2016).
169 Young, 575 U.S. at 252 (Kennedy, J., dissenting).
170 Hostettler v. Coll. of Wooster, 895 F.3d 844, 854 (6th Cir. 2018).
171 Price v. UTi, U.S., Inc., No. 4:11-CV-1428 CAS, 2013 WL 798014, at *2-3 (E.D. Mo. Mar. 5, 2013).
172 Heatherly v. Portillo’s Hot Dogs, Inc., 958 F. Supp. 2d 913, 921 (N.D. Ill. 2013).
173 McKellips v. Franciscan Health Sys., No. C13-5096MJP, 2013 WL 1991103, at *4 (W.D. Wash. May 13, 2013).
174 EEOC Enforcement Guidance, supra note 3; Pregnancy, U.S. Dep’t of Health & Human Servs.,
https://www.womenshealth.gov/pregnancy/youre-pregnant-now-what/pregnancy-complications (last visited June 14,
2021).
175 42 U.S.C. § 12102(1)(A); EEOC Enforcement Guidance, supra note 3; Hostettler, 895 F.3d at 854.
176 Frazier-White v. Gee, 818 F.3d 1249, 1257 (11th Cir. 2016); 29 C.F.R. § 1630.2(o)(3).
177 EEOC Enforcement Guidance, supra note 3.
178 Terrell v. USAir, 132 F.3d 621, 624 (11th Cir. 1998).
179 42 U.S.C. § 12111(10)(B).
180 LaPorta v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 163 F. Supp. 2d 758, 767 (W.D. Mich. 2001); Severson v. Heartland Woodcraft,
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bright-line rule, holding it “a fact-specific, individualized inquiry.”181 For example, one district
court declined to grant defendant summary judgment on a pharmacist’s request for one day of
medical leave, suggesting that whether this was an undue burden depended on such factors as
whether the employer had a replacement pharmacist.182 In another case of a schedule change
request, in which an orthopedic technician asked for an earlier lunch break to mitigate nausea, a
district court in Pennsylvania concluded that a jury could reasonably reject defendant’s claim of
undue hardship.183
The ADA excludes some employers and employees from coverage. The statute applies to
employers of more than 15 employees, and private clubs and religious employers are afforded
certain exemptions.184
Executive Order 13152 and Discrimination Based on Parental Status
It addition to the protections of the PDA, federal executive employees—men and women—enjoy
protection from intentional discrimination based on parental status. Executive Order 13152 bars
“discrimination in employment because of . . . status as a parent.”185 The Office of Personnel
Management (OPM) administers the order, and agencies generally conduct internal investigation
and adjudication of complaints.186 The order does not require accommodation for parents or
create enforcement rights, such as recourse to EEOC adjudication.187 While the order would not
provide protection for pregnancy per se, it does bar discrimination on account of soon-to-be
motherhood.188 An example of discrimination, OPM has explained, includes stereotypes that
parents of young children should not work or lack commitment to work.189

Inc., 872 F.3d 476, n.1 480 (7th Cir. 2017) (“The question of undue hardship is a second-tier inquiry under the statute;
that is, the hardship exception does not come into play absent a determination that a reasonable accommodation was
available.”).
181 Nunes v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 164 F.3d 1243, 1247 (9th Cir. 1999); Cleveland v. Fed. Express Corp., 83 F. App’x
74, 78 (6th Cir. 2003). See also Dunn, No. CV 14-14743-RWZ, 2016 WL 10988545, at *4 (D. Mass. Mar. 25, 2016)
(stating that dispute of fact existed as to whether plaintiff’s request for one additional week of leave unduly burdened
employer).
182 LaPorta, 163 F. Supp. 2d at 768.
183 Jones v. Children’s Hosp. of Philadelphia, No. CV 17-5637, 2019 WL 2640060, at *11 (E.D. Pa. June 27, 2019).
The court applied a state accommodations law requiring the “same framework” as the ADA. Id.
184 42 U.S.C. § 12111(5); see also supra note 26.
185 Exec. Order No. 13152, Further Amendment to Executive Order11478, Equal Employment Opportunity in Federal
Government, 65 Fed. Reg. 26115 (May 2, 2000). A parent includes a biological parent, adoptive parent, foster parent,
stepparent, and others. Id.
186 Id.; Complainant v. Dep’t of Treasury, EEOC Appeal No. 0120143110, 2015 WL 1635909, at *1 (Mar. 10, 2015)
(noting agency’s internal process).
187 Janice R. LaChance, Director, Office of Personnel Management, Memorandum for Heads of Departments and
Independent Establishments 2 (January 19, 2001), https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML0103/ML010310035.pdf (last visited
June 14, 2021).
188 The order also protects anyone actively seeking custody or adoption of a child. Exec. Order No. 13,152, Equal
Employment Opportunity in Federal Government, 65 Fed. Reg. 26,115 (May 2, 2000).
189 Similar sentiments sometimes play a role in pregnancy discrimination. See, e.g., Int’l Union, United Auto.,
Aerospace & Agr. Implement Workers of Am., UAW v. Johnson Controls, Inc., 499 U.S. 187, 197-98 (1991);
Pacourek, 858 F. Supp. at 1401; Jacobson, No. CV-98-564-ST, 1999 WL 373790, at *3 (reporting manager asking
about employee: “what will her commitment be to the company when she has this baby?”).
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Pregnancy and Labor: An Overview of Federal Laws Protecting Pregnant Workers

State Pregnancy Protections
Many states have employment antidiscrimination laws that mirror Title VII, including
antidiscrimination measures applicable to pregnancy. In recent years, several states have passed
more protective statutes requiring accommodations for pregnant workers.190 State regulations,
too, may implement these measures.191 Some provisions take into account pregnant workers’
needs for rest breaks, seating, leave, or other contingencies.192 State legislators have typically
drafted these statutes as amendments to existing laws barring discrimination in employment based
on race, sex, religion, and other factors.193
Sometimes the protections are more closely modeled on an accommodation standard for disability
law. In Kentucky, for example, pregnancy legislation expanded a requirement of “[r]easonable
accommodation[s],” originally intended to benefit workers with disabilities, to include specific
job modifications “[f]or an employee’s own limitations related to her pregnancy, childbirth, or
related medical conditions.”194 Other states have similar measures.195
Some statutes specify presumptively reasonable accommodations. Colorado law, for example,
states that these may include “more frequent restroom, food, and water breaks; acquisition or
modification of equipment or seating; limitations on lifting; temporary transfer to a less strenuous
or hazardous position if available, with return to the current position after pregnancy; job
restructuring; light duty, if available; assistance with manual labor; or modified work
schedules.”196
Proposals to Increase Protections
for Pregnant Workers
While the PDA bars employers from singling out pregnant workers for adverse action or
harassment, some have long called for additional measures. Proposals generally fall into two

190 For surveys of state statutes providing accommodations, see Nat’l P’ship for Women & Families, Reasonable
Accommodations for Pregnant Workers: State and Local Laws (May 2020), https://www.nationalpartnership.org/our-
work/resources/economic-justice/pregnancy-discrimination/reasonable-accommodations-for-pregnant-workers-state-
laws.pdf; Brianna L. Eaton, Note, Pregnancy Discrimination: Pregnant Women Need More Protection in the
Workplace, 64 S.D. L. REV. 244, 262 (2019); Reva B. Siegel, Pregnancy As A Normal Condition of Employment:
Comparative and Role-Based Accounts of Discrimination Cutler Lecture, 59 WM. & MARY L. REV. 969, 974 (2018).
191 See, e.g., HAW. CODE R. § 12-46-107 (implementing Hawaii’s Title VII-like antidiscrimination statute and requiring
pregnancy accommodations).
192 See, e.g., COLO. REV. STAT. §§ 24-34-402.3(4)(b); NEV. REV. STAT. §§ 613.4371. See also W. Va. Code §§ 5-11b-4
(authorizing regulations that “identify some reasonable accommodations addressing known limitations related to
pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions”).
193 See, e.g., S.C. CODE ANN. § 1-13-80; CONN. GEN. STAT. §§ 46a-60.
194 KY. REV. STAT. ANN. § 344.030(6)(b).
195 W. VA. CODE ANN. § 5-11B-5 (5) (stating “‘Reasonable accommodation’ and ‘undue hardship’ have the meanings
given those terms in section 101 of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990”); N.D. CENT. CODE ANN. § 14-02.4-03
(requiring reasonable accommodations for worker “with a physical or mental disability, because that individual is
pregnant, or because of that individual’s religion”).
196 COLO. REV. STAT. ANN. § 24-34-402.3(4)(b); see also NEV. REV. STAT. § 613.4371; VA. CODE § 2.2-3909.
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general categories: (1) job modifications along the lines of the “reasonable accommodations”
provided for disability and (2) pregnancy leave entitlements.197
Some have criticized the PDA as insufficient because of its narrow focus on nondiscrimination.
Treating pregnant women the same as other workers, they argue, does not help pregnant workers
retain employment. An antidiscrimination regime mandating equal treatment, some contend,
ignores the fact that only women become pregnant, and so face “specific and predictable
obstacles to achieving security in the workplace.”198
Others have criticized the PDA because of the burdens it places on employers. At least as
currently interpreted by the Supreme Court in Young, the procedures for comparing pregnant
workers to those similarly situated in their working ability are difficult to apply and
unpredictable.199 Under this case law, the statute may not give employers clear guidelines to know
whether accommodations are required. Thus, employers may expend time and resources in
providing accommodations the law does not require.200
Still others may argue that providing more stringent workplace protections for pregnant workers
may have unintended consequences. Burdening employers—whether through the PDA or
enhanced pregnancy protections—may negatively affect women’s employment, some argue.
Employers may avoid hiring women of childbearing age because of the perceived costs.201 Even
if an employer is willing to make informal accommodations for pregnant workers, some point
out, they may avoid hiring where there is fear of a legal claim to accommodations.202 Employers’
concerns likely arise not only from the potential cost of accommodations, but from potentially
greater costs of litigation.203
Pregnancy Accommodations
Among models for expanding pregnancy protections beyond nondiscrimination, many point to
the ADA as an example of an accommodations regime.204 Some have proposed drawing on ADA
principles to expand current legislation and require accommodations for pregnancy.205 The ADA,

197 See Areheart, supra note 79 at 1128-30; Samuel Issacharoff & Elyse Rosenblum, Women and the Workplace:
Accommodating the Demands of Pregnancy, 94 COLUM. L. REV. 2154, 2197 (1994).
198 Issacharoff & Rosenblum, supra note 197 at 2158; see also Siegel, supra note 190 at 988.
199 See Durham v. Rural/Metro Corp., 955 F.3d 1279, 1288 (11th Cir. 2020) (Boggs, J., concurring).
200 Areheart, supra note 79 at 1128 n.7 (observing that, given the unpredictability, employers may voluntarily extend
accommodations “as a matter of being safe rather than sorry”).
201 Id. at 1159, 170-71 (acknowledging this difficulty and advocating parental accommodations that include fathers);
see also Thomas DeLeire, The Unintended Consequences of the Americans with Disabilities Act, 23 REGULATION, no.
1, at 22-23 (2000).
202 Areheart, supra note 79 at 1157-59 (noting employers are “the constituency that matters most when it comes to
work,” and that they view legal obligations negatively); see also DeLeire, supra note 201 at 22-23 (noting mandated
disability accommodations may dissuade hiring).
203 See DeLeire, supra note 201 at 23 (noting that passage of ADA may have led firms to reduce hiring of disabled
workers because of high litigation costs); EEOC Litigation Statistics, FY 1997 through FY 2019, EEOC,
https://www.eeoc.gov/statistics/eeoc-litigation-statistics-fy-1997-through-fy-2019 (last visited June 14, 2021)
(tabulating monetary relief obtained in EEOC’s ADA enforcement).
204 State-law pregnant workers protections often require accommodations, similar to those used for disability. See supra
notes 194-195. Scholars and advocates often point to the ADA as a starting point or a model for potential legislation.
See infra notes 205-208.
205 Areheart, supra note 79 at 1139 (citing support of the ADA as a model, but pointing out stigmatic harm of equating
pregnancy with discrimination); Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, S. 1512, 114th Cong. (2015); H.R. 2654, 114th Cong.
(2015); H.R. 2694, 116th Cong. (2020); H.R. 1065, 117th Cong. (2021); S. 1486, 117th Cong. (2021); Jeannette Cox,
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as mentioned above, allows workers with a disability to request a reasonable modification in
workplace conditions or rules, provided they can carry out the essential duties of the position.206
The employer and employee work together to identify an appropriate accommodation, and the
employer need not provide one that poses an undue hardship.207 Job modification, in this model,
would be available to all pregnant women, even those who do not qualify as having a disability
under the ADA.208
Another potential accommodation analogue is Title VII’s religious accommodation provision.
Under Title VII’s requirements, employers must make changes to workplace rules to
accommodate employees’ religious practices, unless this poses an “undue hardship on the conduct
of the employer’s business.”209 In practice, the provision has enabled employees to alter schedules
to avoid Sabbath work, wear religious clothing on the job, or seek exemptions from grooming
rules—although whether a request is granted depends on the circumstances, and the requests are
often denied.210 An employer could generally deny a request for scheduling a Sabbath day off, for
example, if the change would contravene a coworker’s productivity or seniority-based scheduling
rights.211 Courts have held that an employer suffers undue hardship when required to bear “more
than a de minimis cost” or imposition upon coworkers for religious accommodations.212
Models for Pregnancy-Related Leave
Disability and religious accommodations are not the only models for constructing possible
pregnancy protections. Some commenters have drawn parallels with state and federal measures
providing job-protected leave from the workplace to support endeavors like voting, jury duty,
court appearances, and military service.213 These protections, some contend, may provide
paradigms for protecting employment while enabling pregnancy and child care.214
Many federal and state laws offer analogous protection for workers’ participation in various
socially beneficial undertakings. For example, many give employees a right to leave for
participation in the legal system. When called for jury service, workers often have the right to

Pregnancy As “Disability” and the Amended Americans with Disabilities Act, 53 B.C. L. REV. 443, 449 (2012).
206 See supra notes 170-178 and accompanying text.
207 42 U.S.C. § 12112(b)(5)(A); 29 C.F.R. § 1630.9.
208 Cox, supra note 205 at 449-51.
209 42 U.S.C. § 2000e(j).
210 EEOC v. Reads, Inc., 759 F. Supp. 1150, 1161 (E.D. Pa. 1991); Hudson v. W. Airlines, Inc., 851 F.2d 261, 266 (9th
Cir. 1988); Gadson v. Alabama Dep’t of Corr., No. 2:13-CV-105-VEH, 2013 WL 5230241, at *2 (N.D. Ala. Sept. 17,
2013). As these cases illustrate, whether an accommodation is an undue burden takes into account collective bargaining
agreements, other employees’ seniority rights, cost, and other considerations.
211 Brener v. Diagnostic Ctr. Hosp., 671 F.2d 141, 146 (5th Cir. 1982).
212 Trans World Airlines, Inc. v. Hardison, 432 U.S. 63, 84 (1977).
213 Bryce Covert, The American Workplace Still Won’t Accommodate Pregnant Workers, NATION (Aug. 12, 2019),
https://www.thenation.com/article/pregnant-workers-discrimination-workplace-low-wage (last visited June 14, 2021)
(quoting Gillian Thomas of the American Civil Liberties Union as asking employers “If this were not a pregnancy but
if it were jury duty, what would you do?”).
214 Robin R. Runge, Redefining Leave from Work, 19 GEO. J. ON POVERTY L. & POL’Y 445, 462 (2012); see also
CATHERINE R. ALBISTON, INSTITUTIONAL INEQUALITY AND THE MOBILIZATION OF THE FAMILY AND MEDICAL LEAVE
ACT, 73, 135 (2010) (noting that leave-oriented statutes like the FMLA differ from Title VII and the ADA because they
do not focus on workers’ identities and are “more like legislation that creates job-protected leaves for jury duty or
military service than anti-discrimination legislation”).
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time off, sometimes with pay.215 Federal law bars employers from discharging employees for
federal jury service.216 Federal employees receive pay for jury service, and federal regulations for
unemployment benefits exempt those serving as jurors from requirements that they search for
work.217
Almost all states also bar an employer from firing an employee because of jury service, and many
go further—requiring paid leave for time served as a juror.218 Other state laws restrict the working
hours an employer can require during jury service or bar employers from requiring jurors use sick
leave or vacation to cover their service.219 Most states also have rules that facilitate workers’ court
participation more broadly, requiring leave or at least nondiscrimination on account of an
employee’s taking time off to appear as a witness.220
Perhaps the most comprehensive of these employment accommodation schemes is federal
legislation protecting military reservists, the Uniformed Services Employment and
Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA). The statute provides antidiscrimination, antiretaliation,
and reemployment rights designed to permit military reserve members to complete periodic
training and, when needed, extended deployment.221 One observer characterized the statute as
“possibly the most employee-friendly labor/employment law in effect today.”222 The law’s stated
purpose is to “eliminat[e] or minimiz[e] the disadvantages to civilian careers and employment
which can result from [military] service.”223
Employers cannot fire, refuse to hire, or refuse to promote a servicemember because of his or her
past, present, or future service obligations. In applying the statute’s antidiscrimination provisions,
courts turn to analyses of animus and causation used in Title VII and other, similar
antidiscrimination statutes; indeed, the Supreme Court has assessed the statute as “very similar to
Title VII.”224 USERRA goes further than antidiscrimination, however. Its reemployment
provisions ensure that servicemembers can return to work after training or deployment. The

215 See, e.g., ALA. CODE § 12-16-8; CAL. LABOR CODE § 230; 705 ILL. COMP. STAT. ANN. 305/4; N.Y. JUD. LAW § 519.
216 28 U.S.C. § 1875.
217 Policy Data, Oversight: Pay & Leave, Office of Personnel Management, https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-
oversight/pay-leave/leave-administration/fact-sheets/court-leave/ (last visited June 14, 2021); 20 C.F.R. §
615.8(g)(3)(i)(A)).
218 Molly Weston Williamson, The Meaning of Leave: Understanding Workplace Leave Rights, 22 N.Y.U. J. LEGIS. &
PUB. POL’Y 197, 201 (2020) (“Every state except Montana provides some type of specific workplace protection for
those serving jury duty.”); Runge, supra note 214 at 462 (2012); Marianne DelPo Kulow, Legislating A Family-
Friendly Workplace: Should It Be Done in the United States?, 7 NW. J. L. & SOC. POL’Y 88, 95 (2012). As one analysis
concluded, such legislation “reflect[s] the value society places on participating in the justice system.” Runge, supra
note 214 at 462.
219 Williamson, supra note 218 at 209. Some observers describe paid jury duty as a “civic responsibility” employers
should shoulder. Jamie Philpotts, Los Angeles-Based Latham & Watkins Was Recently Reprimanded by A Local
Federal Judge for Not Allowing A Secretary Paid Leave for Jury Duty, OF COUNSEL, September 21, 1992, at 15
(quoting district judge).
220 Williamson, supra note 218 at 201 (stating 33 states mandate leave rights for witnesses, crime victims, or their
families); supra note 214 at 462; Matt Brown, Updates in Employment Law Leave in South Carolina, S.C. LAW., at 44,
47 (January 2018). For a list of state laws enabling victims of domestic violence to seek time off for legal matters, see
LEGAL MOMENTUM, STATE LAW GUIDE: EMPLOYMENT RIGHTS FOR VICTIMS OF DOMESTIC OR SEXUAL VIOLENCE, http://
www.legalmomentum.org/assets/pdfs/employment-rights.pdf.
221 38 U.S.C. § 4311(a).
222 Kenan Torrans, A Primer on the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, 47 MD. B.J., at 12
(March/April 2014).
223 38 U.S.C. § 4301(a)(1).
224 Staub v. Proctor Hosp., 562 U.S. 411, 417 (2011).
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statute allows for leave without pay during military service. Upon return, a servicemember
receives the same status, benefits, and pay at the rate previously earned.225 In addition, the
servicemember is entitled to the same promotion opportunities or pay increases available to those
who did not take leave for military duties and accrues seniority during deployment.226 Employers
can escape this obligation, however, if their “circumstances have so changed as to make such
reemployment impossible or unreasonable.”227
In addition to USERRA’s substantial protections, many states provide other benefits to
accommodate military service. These benefits include leave rights for military spouses in
connection with a deployment.228
Aside from military and court service, state legislatures have mandated leave for many other tasks
they seek to enable. Bone marrow or organ donors often receive time off for this endeavor.229
Some states provide leave for those who volunteer as emergency or disaster service workers.230
Voting, too, is a common source of leave entitlement, mandated in at least 30 states.231 These
types of leave requirements may generally call for shorter leave entitlements than would
pregnancy—often a matter of days or even hours rather than weeks or months. They may serve as
useful points of comparison, however, because they (unlike many disability accommodations)
anticipate a temporary, rather than permanent alteration of workplace obligations.
Recent Legislative Proposals: The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act
and the Equality Act
Against this background, legislators have proposed various legislative reform efforts for
pregnancy accommodations.232 Most notably, the House of Representatives passed the Pregnant
Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) in spring 2021.233 The proposal largely incorporates the
accommodation requirements of the ADA, calling for work adjustments unless they result in
“undue hardship” to an employer.234 It aims to “promote women’s health and economic security
by ensuring reasonable workplace accommodations for workers whose ability to perform the
functions of a job are limited by pregnancy, childbirth, or a related medical condition.”235 Like the
ADA, it obliges employers to engage in an interactive process to determine appropriate
accommodations.236

225 38 U.S.C. § 4313(a). See also Torrans, supra note 222 at 12, 15.
226 38 U.S.C. § 4313. See also Williamson, supra note 218 at 216 (noting this accrual of seniority during leave is
unusual in employment law, “used essentially exclusively in the context of military service”).
227 38 U.S.C. § 4312(d)(1)(A).
228 Williamson, supra note 218 at 202.
229 Kulow, supra note 218 at 95.
230 Id.
231 Id. at 95 n.55.
232 H.R. 2417, 115th Cong. (2017); S. 1101, 115th Cong. (2017); Nancy Gunzenhauser Popper, House Passes Pregnant
Workers Fairness Act, NAT. L. REV. (Oct. 7, 2020), https://www.natlawreview.com/article/house-passes-pregnant-
workers-fairness-act (last visited June 14, 2021).
233 Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, H.R. 1065, 117th Cong. (2021); see also S. 1486, 117th Cong. (2021).
234 H.R. 1065, 116th Cong. §§ 2(1), 5(7).
235 Id.
236 Id. § 5(7).
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The PWFA, however, differs from the ADA in several notable ways. While the ADA requires that
an employee be able to perform the essential functions of her job, the PWFA would protect an
employee who cannot perform an essential function if that inability (1) is temporary, (2) will be
eliminated in the “near future,” and (3) can be reasonably accommodated.237 This provision has
come under criticism, with opponents pointing out that it goes much further than the ADA in
requiring employers to retain a worker who cannot complete some job functions.238 The PWFA
also directly addresses the potential concern of mandatory leave, requiring that employers not
force a qualified employee to take leave if another accommodation would suffice.239
In addition, a pregnant worker’s impairment under the PWFA need not meet the definition of a
“disability” under the ADA before she may claim protection.240 While there is a substantial body
of precedent defining the ADA’s standard for disability, how this new standard would play out is
hard to predict.241
The PWFA would apply to employers of more than 15 workers and would be enforced by the
EEOC, which would issue regulations providing examples of reasonable accommodations.242 The
bill would waive sovereign immunity for state employers.243 Remedies include compensatory
damages, punitive damages, and attorneys’ fees.244 Like many other antidiscrimination measures,
the PWFA would bar retaliation against a worker who has requested an accommodation.245 Unlike
Title VII, the bill would not include an exemption for religious employers.246
All in all, the proposal would significantly expand job modifications for pregnant women. Unlike
the ADA, it accounts for pregnancy-related impairments’ temporary nature, requiring workers be
permitted provisional job changes to essential duties. And it differs from the PDA and Title VII’s
antidiscrimination mandate, separating pregnancy from the equal treatment regime applicable to
other forms of sex discrimination.
Besides the PWFA, the Equality Act passed by the House in early 2021 also includes provisions
addressing pregnancy.247 The bill includes provisions defining pregnancy discrimination as sex
discrimination, and further addresses discrimination against breastfeeding women.248 It would
broaden pregnancy antidiscrimination law to include facilities and programs outside of Title VII’s
jurisdiction, employment.249

237 Id. § (5)(6).
238 As one witness in committee hearing on a prior version of the bill put it, a worker might “report for work but not do
the job.” H. REP. NO. 116-494 at 51 (2020) (report, together with minority views from the Committee on Education and
Labor to accompany 116 H.R. 2694,116th Cong.) (quoting labor lawyer Ellen McLaughlin).
239 H.R. 1065, 116th Cong. § 2(4).
240 Id. § 5(5).
241 H. REP. NO. 116-494 at 53 (quoting labor lawyer Ellen McLaughlin).
242 H.R. 1065, §§ 3(1), 4, 5(2)(B)(i).
243 Id. § 6.
244 Id. § 3.
245 Id. § 2(5).
246 See H. REP. NO. 116-494 at 57 (2020).
247 H.R. 5, 117th Cong. (2021).
248 Id. § 2.
249 Id. §§ 3, 4, 6, 9; See also S. 393, 117th Cong. (2021), § 2.
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Conclusion and Considerations for Congress
A cluster of federal statutes currently protects pregnant workers. As it stands, Title VII, including
its PDA provisions, primarily offers antidiscrimination protection against bias—barring
employers from using pregnancy in employment decisions.250 The FMLA and the ADA provide
affirmative benefits for some pregnant workers, most notably unpaid leave for eligible employees
and accommodations (including job modifications where reasonable) for pregnancy-related
disability.251
Over the years, Congress has expanded pregnant workers’ protections. It added the PDA to Title
VII to clarify its application to pregnancy, and it broadened the definition of disability within the
ADA to include temporary disabilities, enhancing protection for pregnant employees (among
others).252
Courts have also played a role in shaping pregnancy protections. The Supreme Court’s decision
in Gilbert motivated passage of the PDA.253 More recently, the High Court’s application of Title
VII’s PDA provisions in Young raises questions about whether and when pregnancy
accommodations are required under current law, at least in situations where employers
accommodate other employees.254 While Young established that an employer who accommodates
nonpregnant employees may be obligated to similarly accommodate pregnant women, the Court
did not develop a clear test for when this obligation arises. The precedent’s call for case-specific
analysis makes it difficult to define pregnant workers’ protections and their employers’
obligations.
In the face of piecemeal legislation and complicated judicial administration, some have called for
more explicit pregnancy protections, such as accommodations for nondisabling pregnancy-related
conditions or expanded leave. Several states have passed pregnancy accommodations laws to
supplement existing antidiscrimination measures.255 Federal proposals have included the PWFA’s
proposed accommodations requirements modeled on the ADA.256
In the future, if it seeks to enhance or consolidate protections, Congress may choose to amend
Title VII, the ADA, or the FMLA. Potential changes include clarifying which workers qualify as
similar in their ability to work when considering accommodation requests under the PDA.
Congress could expand the FMLA to cover pregnant workers currently excluded.
Another option might be to implement a separate accommodation regime modeled on the ADA.
The PWFA, passed by the House in 2021, takes this approach. Because it requires case-by-case
analysis of the worker’s needs and the potential hardship on a particular employer, some may see
this model as the most flexible. It may come with uncertainty, too, as a common pregnancy-
related modification may be reasonable in one workplace and not another. Congress might also

250 See supra notes 5-26 and accompanying text.
251 See supra notes 157-178 and accompanying text.
252 42 U.S.C. § 2000e(k); id. § 12102(4)(A); ADA Amendments Act of 2008, Pub. L. No. 110-325, 122 Stat. 3553
(2008); Young, 575 U.S. at 252 (Kennedy, J., dissenting); supra notes 17-21 and 168-183 and accompanying text.
253 42 U.S.C. § 2000e(k); supra notes 17-21.
254 See supra notes 87-145 and accompanying text.
255 See supra notes 190-195 and accompanying text.
256 Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, H.R. 1065, 117th Cong. (2021); see also S. 1486, 117th Cong. (2021).
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consider enumerating, as some state laws do, presumptively reasonable pregnancy
accommodations.257
Alternatively, federal and state legislation in other contexts unrelated to disabilities or
discrimination may provide models for enacting pregnancy-specific job protection and leave
options.
In any of these measures defining pregnancy protections, Congress may delineate covered
employers, deciding whether to exclude (as some antidiscrimination laws do) smaller employers,
religious employers, or certain government employers.258 Employee eligibility may also be a
consideration, as Congress could require minimum tenure or full-time status as a prerequisite.

Author Information

April J. Anderson

Legislative Attorney

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257 See, e.g., COLO. REV. STAT. ANN. § 24-34-402.3 (4)(b); NEV. REV. STAT. § 613.4371; VA. CODE § 2.2-3909. The
PWFA calls for the EEOC to promulgate examples of reasonable accommodations. H.R. 1065, 117th Cong. § 4.
258 See supra notes 24-26 and accompanying text.
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