Report: Planned Parenthood discriminated against pregnant employees

Planned Parenthood staffers are exposing the organization’s abysmal treatment and discrimination against its pregnant employees. The details, published by the New York Times in a stunning exposé, reveal that Planned Parenthood “employers saw accommodating expecting mothers as expensive and inconvenient. Others were unsympathetic to workers seeking special treatment.”

“A dozen lawsuits filed against Planned Parenthood clinics in federal and state courts since 2013 accused managers of denying workers rest periods, lunch breaks or overtime pay, or retaliating against them for taking medical leave,” the New York Times states.

The shocking report reveals how negatively Planned Parenthood viewed pregnant staffers.

The former human resources manager, who requested anonymity, said that executives assumed that when a pregnant worker brought in a doctor’s note, it was an excuse to work less. People who took sick days were perceived as lacking commitment.

The Times spoke to more than a dozen current and former staffers and organizers of the Office and Professional Employees International Union, which accused the abortion corporation “of sidelining, ousting or otherwise handicapping pregnant employees,” and found that:

• Managers discriminated against pregnant women and new mothers.
• A pregnant PP staffer was fired weeks after giving birth. Another fired the day she returned from maternity leave.
• Managers ignored a pregnant staffer’s doctor’s note recommending frequent breaks, asked her to delay maternity leave, and pressured her to return back early. Others had to work long hours with few breaks.
• Managers declined to hire pregnant job candidates.
• Supervisors openly debated whether candidates were likely to get pregnant in future, preferring those who were not.

 

According to current and former employees in California, Texas, North Carolina, and New York, “[M]anagers in some locations declined to hire pregnant job candidates, refused requests by expecting mothers to take breaks and in some cases pushed them out of their jobs after they gave birth,” in clear violation of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which “provides certain employees with up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave per year.”

READ: BOMBSHELL: Former employee sues Planned Parenthood for discrimination after cancer diagnosis

Planned Parenthood reportedly “declined to hire one pregnant woman and to promote one new mother.”

A former hiring manager at a Planned Parenthood in California said that when internal promotions came up, supervisors openly debated whether candidates were likely to get pregnant in the near future and preferred those who were not…The former manager said her colleagues felt they couldn’t afford to promote someone only to lose them for several weeks.

Under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA):

• An employer cannot refuse to hire a woman because of her pregnancy related condition as long as she is able to perform the major functions of her job. An employer cannot refuse to hire her because of its prejudices against pregnant workers….
• [A]n employer that allows temporarily disabled employees to take disability leave or leave without pay must allow an employee who is temporarily disabled due to pregnancy to do the same.
• Employers must hold open a job for a pregnancy related absence the same length of time that jobs are held open for employees on sick or temporary disability leave.
• If an employee is temporarily unable to perform her job due to pregnancy, the employer must treat her the same as any other temporarily disabled employee…
• [I]mpairments resulting from pregnancy (for example, gestational diabetes) may be disabilities under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)…

The Act also…

• [F]orbids discrimination based on pregnancy when it comes to any other aspect of employment, including pay, job assignments, promotions, layoffs, training, fringe benefits, firing, and any other term or condition of employment.

Despite many documented abuses, including pregnancy discrimination, Planned Parenthood is granted over $500 million a year in taxpayer subsidies, millions of which flow from the Federal Title X family planning program.

Those Title X requirements state:

Grantees and sub-recipients are obligated to establish and maintain personnel policies that comply with applicable Federal and State requirements, including Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the annual appropriations language. These policies should include, but are not to be limited to, staff recruitment, selection, performance evaluation, promotion, termination, compensation, benefits, and grievance procedures.

READ: Has the media been caught in Planned Parenthood’s web of lies?

Right on cue, when asked about this behavior, Planned Parenthood leadership either denied the validity of a particular claim or stated that it was “investigating the allegations.” This is a common response the abortion corporation employs with abortion-friendly media, a strategy exposed seen after Live Action caught Planned Parenthood lying about retraining staffers following an undercover investigation.

Planned Parenthood masquerades as a women’s health care organization, yet despite netting large profits, it appears from Wen’s statement above that Planned Parenthood has thus far not offered its pregnant employees paid maternity leave.

As a result, staffers like Marissa Hamilton, employed at a Colorado Planned Parenthood, created a Go Fund Me page due to “financial strain” after her baby was born prematurely.

Planned Parenthood’s leadership allegedly looked down on pregnant employees who were reportedly “scared to tell managers they were pregnant.” In desperation, one employee pretended “they were not planning on having children or were gay or single.”

Live Action News has previously documented the discrimination accusation of a former Planned Parenthood employee alleging that her employer made it difficult for her to take medical leave when she was diagnosed with cervical cancer. Planned Parenthood settled that case out of court.

Live Action’s investigations have exposed the true face of Planned Parenthood and recently revealed that abortion, not prenatal care, is the primary “service” Planned Parenthood offers to pregnant patients. Is it any wonder that an organization which profits from ending the lives of over 320,000 preborn babies every year by abortion would treat pregnant staffers so poorly?