Infertility is a disability (teacher at private catholic school fired for IVF)
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Anonymous
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Thoughts?
I don't know that this really should be considered a disability, but at the same time the Catholic Church really seems to find ways to fire its women teachers. http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/04/26/teacher-says-catholic-school-fired-her-over-ivf/ |
Anonymous
I am not Catholic but if I accept a job with an organization, school, whatever, that is Catholic, then I have to abide by their rules. No one held a gun to her head to take this job and she should have known the Church's position on IVF. I know and, as I said, am not Catholic. |
Anonymous
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I saw her on Today show this morning. I'm REALLY not sure why she felt the need to share this information (that she was undergoing IVF) with anyone within a Catholic school. It really was her business, and who cares HOW she gets pregnant? Medical procedures are private, correct? It's just dumb all around. I have huge issues with the Catholic Church in general, but I'm having a problem feeling sympathetic in this particular case.
On the other hand, I have secondary IF like her and SHOULD feel some pity for her general dilemma, I just think she was dumb to tell anyone in a strict religious school about it. |
Anonymous
| Just as an FYI, OP, it has been more than a decade since the Supreme Court noted that infertility was a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Old news. |
Anonymous
| I think she violated the terms of her employment. They expect her to represent a certain moral code. I don't happen to believe in that code but she chose to be employed by them in a teaching capacity. |
Anonymous
She wasn't fired for being infertile. She was fired for doing IVF. |
Anonymous
And more importantly, fired for talking about doing IVF. That was her biggest mistake. (signed, another IVF patient from a very conservative family many of whom have no idea we did it). |
Anonymous
I actually never heard before this. What was the rationale? Why would someone need protection from discrimination? She said that she told the school because she was going to her medical appointments during the day. What if they asked her for proof of appointments? |
Anonymous
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To be fair to her, she had worked at the school for eight years and was fired when she was 31. I doubt that many 23 year-olds think about whether or not they will need to do IVF before considering what job to take. Every 23 year old assumes they will get married, have sex, and get pregnant right away.
Also, I tried really hard for years to keep my infertility from everyone, including my family and friends but also from the people in my workplace. IVF involves months of monitoring and appointments followed by several days that you must take off to do the egg retrieval and transfer. Eventually, both my husband and I had to tell our bosses what was going on in order to get leave approved. I think that more people we worked with knew what was going on than people in our families because we missed meetings, couldn't go on business trips during certain periods, etc. Anyone who thinks that it is possible to keep this information totally private has never faced the logistical dilemmas that come with IVF. |
Anonymous
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On the one hand I guess I agree with the PP about, well, if she didn't want to follow those rules then I guess she shouldn't have worked for the Catholics. However can you imagine how many people working for a Catholic institution (hospital, school/university, charity, what have you) have used birth control, had sex outside marriage, had an abortion, done IVF, gotten divorced or married outside the church, etc, etc? Probably damn near everyone at one time or another. I do not want my employer to have those kinds of concerns about my private life, that's for sure.
And I wonder if she were a big shot doctor at Georgetown or something and someone got wind of this if she'd be fired, know what I mean? Or if some big shot male doctor would, if his wife did IVF. Or if he cheated on his wife.... Hell, priests who raped children didn't get "fired" so we know the rules don't apply to everyone equally. The one thing about this is...if it were just a matter of Catholic elementary schools or churches, okay. But does everyone working for a Catholic hospital have to abide by these rules? Many people might end up at a Catholic hospital without having any affiliation with the church at all. I guess you better keep your mouth shut then. |
Anonymous
| So sad that the Catholic Church, via a hospital no less, still wields this kind of power. |
Anonymous
I guarantee she informed them because of the frequent absences and tardies from all the monitoring, retrieval and transfer appointments were being noticed. |
Anonymous
This case answers your question. She was fired for doing IVF, which they only found out about because she had to ask for time off. A non-religious employer would not have been able to fire her for a medical condition because people are protected by the ADA. This is why the religious exception is so unfair. |
Anonymous
This could have been easily taken care of by having the doctor write a note that did not indicate what exactly she was being treated for, but that she required periodic monitoring. I've known several IVFers who've done this. |
Anonymous
that is NOT how she presented it on Today Show. watch the clip - she made it sound like she felt "forced" to share because she kept getting asked when she was planning to have another. Which is of course another very personal question and none of anyone's damn business. I get that this involves time off, but why do you haver to share WHAT the doctor's visits are for? I just feel like it violates privacy to be asked what your doctor's appointments are for - what if she had cancer and didn't want to tell anyone? She can't be forced to share anything other than "I have a doctor's appointment" |