By Alisha Haridasani Gupta and Alexandra E. Petri, The New York Times, March 4, 2021
Congress is considering a new bill that could provide women across the country who face pregnancy discrimination a clear channel for recourse. It took only eight years, six legislative sessions and thousands of lawsuits — including one that made it to the Supreme Court — to get to this point. And now it might finally pass.
The new bill, known as the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, or PWFA, was first introduced in 2012 and has been reintroduced in the House in almost every legislative session since. But it’s repeatedly failed because it lacked bipartisan support and a sense of urgency, advocates say.
This time, since the bill was introduced in February — in the midst of the pandemic that has pushed millions of women out of work, without protections or health insurance — it has received 225 sponsors, including 19 Republicans, injecting a high dose of optimism that the bill will be signed into law in the coming months.
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