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PDA extends to abortions
June 01, 2008 by Ross Runkel at LawMemo
The 3rd Circuit holds that the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA), a part of Title VII, prohibits discrimination due to having an abortion.
Doe v. C.A.R.S. Protection (3rd Cir 05/30/2008)
Doe sued the employer for violation of Title VII as amended by the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) alleging wrongful discharge because of a surgical abortion.
The employer claimed the discharge was because Doe abandoned her job.
The trial court granted the employer’s motion for summary judgment. The 3rd Circuit reversed.
Relying on the legislative history of the PDA, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s guidelines, and the 6th Circuit holding that an employer could not discriminate against a woman employee because she had an abortion (Turic v. Holland Hospitality, Inc., 85 F3d 1211 (1996)), the court held that the term “related medical condition” in the PDA included an abortion.
The court modified the first element of a prima facie case for disparate treatment requiring the employee to establish that she was pregnant and the employer knew it.
The three working days between notifying the employer that she would have to undergo an abortion and the discharge met the prima facie burden as to the causal connection element.
The court stated the record refuted the trial court’s conclusion that Doe presented no evidence from which a reasonable jury could disbelieve the employer’s reason for discharging her for abandoning her job.
