In Abortion at Work, author Wendy Simonds interviewed clinic workers. They discussed how the clinic administrators dealt with pregnant employees:
One clinic worker is quoted saying:
“Audrey hasn’t been getting the support she needed after she got pregnant, and she felt like people didn’t want her to be pregnant by this guy because she was a lesbian before, and that she was totally confused, and just all that kind of stuff….and then Glenda, before she got her job as supervisor, apparently they asked her if she was planning to get pregnant or not, because she was going to have to take leave, and it was going to totally mess up the supervisors…It’s just like, please, if somebody wants to have a baby, then we need to be supportive and work around that, you know, but not let it interfere with their career tracks.”
On the same page the author states:
“Though the center directors took pride in their acceptance of ‘choice’ as a central tenant of feminist health care practice, the Center had no policies that demonstrated support for employees who decided to procreate…when it became [an impediment to work] administrators disapproved. Women typically took two or three months of unpaid leave after their babies were born…some women complained that the managers were not willing to accommodate…their responsibilities to their children.”
Abortion at Work: Ideology and Practice in a Feminist Clinic by Wendy Simonds, (Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, NJ., 1996) 152-153
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