What It's Like To Lose Your Job While Pregnant

Crosby isn't alone. Under current law, employers who refuse to make accommodations for pregnant women that they would make for workers with disabilities are guilty of discrimination. But according to Emily Martin of the National Women's Law Center, which is filing a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Crosby's behalf, employers still commonly fire pregnant women rather than providing such accommodations. "We don't have numbers," she told BuzzFeed, "but looking at published cases, it seems to be a story that's repeated again and again."

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Part of the reason may be prejudice: Martin said, "You see lots of variations on the theme of employers assuming that women who are pregnant or are mothers are less committed to their work or less valuable as workers."

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The hospital would not comment directly on whether Crosby was scheduled to be terminated in April, saying only, "Tallahassee Memorial hopes that the NWLC will reconsider the course it has chosen and work with TMH to ensure that all employees are treated fairly and safely under the law."

The NWLC believes Crosby has a case under current law. But Martin also said courts have sometimes been unhelpful in enforcing what the NWLC believes are existing legal protections for pregnant women. She's seen courts rule that "an employer can fire somebody because she needs to carry a water bottle during her pregnancy."

For that reason, the NWLC supports the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, which would make protections for pregnant women more explicit. Martin said the act "would make unmistakably clear that employers have to accommodate limitations arising out of pregnancy just like they accommodate limitations arising out of disability." The Act was introduced in Congress last year but stalled in committee — the NWLC hopes it will be reintroduced.