Beyond Pregnancy
Litigating Infertility, Contraception, and Breastfeeding in the Workplace
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6409218 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Michelle D Deardorff (0000-0002-2849-8010, Jackson State University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2011 |
| Volume | 32 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 52-72 |
| Publication date | 2011-01-31 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Women & Politics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0195-7732 • E-ISSN: 1540-9473 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/1554477x.2011.537558 |
| OpenAlex | W2059004576 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 10 |
In the United States, the lower federal courts frequently determine the meaning of statutes through their decisions. Political science research has mostly focused on how lower courts make their interpretations in light of Supreme Court precedents. This article examines how the federal courts have interpreted the Pregnancy Discrimination Act's (PDA) “related medical conditions” clause in the absence of legislative or Supreme Court guidance. Three primary claims have been litigated as conditions related to pregnancy that therefore require protection in the workplace—insurance coverage of prescription contraception, inclusion of infertility treatments under insurance, and the provision of time and privacy for breastfeeding. Besides the PDA's guarantee of formal equality in the workplace, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) also requires employers to make some accommodations for pregnant women. In all three policy areas the case law demonstrates a lack of consistency and the existence of conflict in the federal district courts, but the appellate courts are slowly beginning to provide some consistency within circuits. As the courts have considered the statutory protection for women extending beyond pregnancy, their responses have been ambivalent at best. It is only in the contraception cases that the door remains open for explicit PDA protection. The ADA may potentially protect women in terms of infertility coverage and breastfeeding; however, Supreme Court rulings requiring disabilities under the ADA to be permanent may have shut the door on the ADA's protection of any aspect of pregnancy
Consistency (knowledge bases · Employment discrimination · Legislation · Legislature · Political science · Statute · Statutory law · Supreme court · Discrimination and Equality Law · Law · Legal Systems and Judicial Processes · Medicine · Multicultural Socio-Legal Studies
Elements of judicial strategy
Feminism unmodified
Indian rights and law before the federal district courts
Responses of Federal District Judges to Court of Appeals Policies
Women’s Lives, Men’s Laws
Overruled
Assessing the Applicability of Strategic Theory to Explain Decision Making on the Courts of Appeals
Judicial Policymaking in Published and Unpublished Decisions
Supreme Court Auditing of the US Courts of Appeals
The Impact of Party and Region on Voting Decisions in the United States Courts of Appeals, 1955-1986
| Citations per year | 0.08 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2013 - 2013 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |