The legal aspects of fetal protection policies in the workplace

The concerns of working women have received increasing attention from lawmakers, employers and women themselves as more and more American women enter the workforce. Fetal protection policies evidence a growing awareness by employers that their workplace poses special hazards to the unborn children of women workers. Yet, the fetal protection area is fraught with tension between legitimate competing concerns. Women expect equal employment opportunities, and employers are legally bound to provide equal treatment; however, these interests are challenged by women's desire to deliver healthy babies and employers' desire to avoid causing fetal defects or to be sued for naturally occurring genetic defects. Title 7 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and various state laws on fair employment practice embodies societal concerns for fairness in employment as it relates to fetal protection. Fetal protection policies are one example in which discriminatory practices are implicated since under such policies employers may refuse to hire or segregate previously hired pregnant women or women of child bearing age on the grounds that such exclusion or segregation is necessary to protect fetal health or the reproductive capacity of the female employee. A dilemma is presented to the employer of any nuclear workforce which includes women since the permissible dose for a man or woman is many times larger than the dose for a fetus