Congress enacted the Pregnancy Discrimination Act in 1978 as an amendment to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to prohibit discrimination on the basis of pregnancy. The Civil Rights Act in its original form did not offer explicit protections to pregnant women, so the Pregnancy Discrimination Act was created to protect pregnant women in the workplace.

The Pregnancy Discrimination Act only affects employers engaged in commerce who have at least fifteen employees; the US government, however, is exempt from having to comply with its provisions. The act makes it illegal for an employer to discriminate against a person for variety of reasons, including on the basis of sex. In the definitions section, “on the basis of sex” is defined to include “the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions.” Discrimination may occur during such actions as hiring, firing, salary determinations, training, fringe benefit determinations, leave and health insurance decisions and any other terms of employment. The act also requires employers to match the leave of employees temporarily disabled by pregnancy with that offered to otherwise temporarily disabled employees.

While the Pregnancy Discrimination Act does not require employers to pay for health insurance policies covering abortions, employers are required to provide health insurance benefits for medical complications arising out of an abortion.

Covered employers cannot reduce benefits to comply with the act’s provisions, which means that to follow applicable laws, employers must provide “sufficient contributions” to their employees’ benefits so that pregnant women are not discriminated against in the workplace. Because benefits are especially important when one is unable to work, the act attempted to create systems to protect pregnant women who needed time off from work to deal with pregnancy, particularly the medical aspects of it.