Honor Moms By Ensuring a Safer Future for Ohio’s Pregnant Workers

Every Mother’s Day people take time to celebrate the women who fed and nurtured us for about nine months and brought us safely into the world. On the second Sunday of every May, we honor the women who wiped our tears, nursed our scars and eased our tears. Sadly the state of Ohio refuses to keep working moms and their children out of harm’s way. The unfortunate truth is that pregnancy discrimination is still very much a reality in our state. However, a prominent coalition of faith leaders, business owners, doctors, and lawmakers, who introduced legislation this month, are working to change that.

Just over a year ago, we reached an important milestone in our nation’s journey toward ensuring that all pregnant workers have access to safe working conditions: the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Peggy Young v. UPS reaffirming that it is illegal to fire, demote, suspend, or otherwise discriminate against workers simply because they’re pregnant.

The triumph of Peggy Young, a former UPS delivery driver who sued the mailing service in 2007 for refusing to accommodate her pregnancy-related medical needs, was a win for all women workers as her pregnancy included constraints that often arise for thousands of expectant mothers during those nine months. After consulting with her doctor, Young asked for a reasonable and temporary accommodation limiting the weight she could lift during the last months of her pregnancy.

While Young’s case came to a favorable close, many women across the country still struggle with similar instances of workplace discrimination. The federal Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 (PDA) outlawed pregnancy discrimination but did not address the need for simple and temporary accommodations during pregnancy.

In the state of Ohio alone, there were more than 1,600 complaints filed with the Ohio Civil Rights Commission alleging such discrimination since the state began tracking these cases. Going beyond the obvious civil rights issue at stake, pregnancy discrimination is also a serious health issue for both women and their children. Whether it’s temporary relief from heavy lifting, being able to sit for a few minutes every couple of hours, or having extra access to the bathroom these simple steps can stave off bladder infections and even preterm labor.

It seems almost absurd that such basic protections are not already afforded to every person in the workplace, and yet this is proof of the need for common sense to be spelled out in the letter of the law.

As a mother myself and an advocate, I was proud to stand with members of the Ohio Senate, both Republicans and Democrats in support of a new bill to protect pregnant workers. It was incredible to witness the power of this initiative, ultimately gaining the support of every single woman in the Ohio Senate for the first time ever.

Now I can proudly say that the bill has been officially introduced in the legislature as SB 301, the Pregnancy Reasonable Accommodations Act. Supporting testimony was heard just before Mother’s Day. We are well on our way to righting the wrong that is pregnancy discrimination in Ohio.

Over 160 faith leaders throughout our state came together in coalition to ask the Ohio Legislature for this bill. These leaders know that discrimination against pregnant mothers is a moral injustice and believe that no woman should ever have to choose between her job and her pregnancy.

Momentum is growing across the country to make sure that cases like Peggy Young’s don’t happen again. To date, fourteen states and several cities have passed laws requiring employers to provide reasonable accommodations to pregnant workers. Faith leaders, doctors, business people, and legislators alike agree that in the year 2016 it is wrong to force a woman to choose between her job and her pregnancy. States also recognize that forcing a woman out of work during her pregnancy is a burden on the economy. At the point where discrimination continues to impede families and the economy, something must be done.

Ahead of Mother’s Day, we met at the statehouse to honor moms the best way we know how: by supporting legislation to do away with pregnancy discrimination.

We call Ohio to take a step toward catching up with common sense and creating a state where pregnant women are afforded the right to be both a mother and a worker. We owe that to Ohio moms.