A retail manager in Towson tells her store director she’s pregnant and is fired six weeks later for “performance issues” no one has mentioned in three years. A nurse in Bethesda asks her hospital for a temporary lifting restriction during her second trimester and is told her position is being eliminated. A new mother returning to work in Silver Spring after maternity leave requests a private space to pump breast milk and is laid off in a “restructuring” that affects only her position. The patterns are familiar enough that the Wrongful Termination Lawyers Maryland employees consult see versions of them every month. The legal framework for these cases changed substantially in the past few years, with both Maryland and federal law expanding the protections available, and the cases are built differently today than they were five years ago.
The Three Layers of Protection That Now Apply
A Maryland worker terminated during or after pregnancy has three primary layers of protection that often run simultaneously. The federal Pregnancy Discrimination Act, which has been in place since 1978, prohibits employment discrimination based on pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions, and is enforced through Title VII. The federal Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, which took effect on June 27, 2023, requires covered employers to provide reasonable accommodations for known limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions, unless doing so would impose an undue hardship. The Maryland Reasonable Accommodations for Disabilities Due to Pregnancy Act, codified within the Maryland Fair Employment Practices Act, provides additional state-level protections.
The combination matters because each statute addresses different aspects of the problem. The federal PDA covers discrimination, including discriminatory firings. The federal PWFA covers the reasonable accommodation framework, including the interactive process and the duty to engage. The Maryland statute provides longer filing windows and broader coverage in some respects.
Federal employees and certain federal contractor employees may have additional protections through the Family and Medical Leave Act, the Federal Employees Paid Leave Act, and agency-specific frameworks. The Affordable Care Act’s nursing mother protections, expanded in 2022 by the PUMP Act, layer on protections related to lactation accommodations.
What the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act Actually Requires
The federal PWFA applies to private and public sector employers with 15 or more employees. The statute’s central obligation is the duty to provide reasonable accommodations for known limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions, unless the accommodation would impose an undue hardship on the employer.
The covered limitations are broad. EEOC regulations implementing the PWFA define the term to include physical or mental conditions related to, affected by, or arising out of pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions. The condition does not have to rise to the level of a disability under the ADA. Common pregnancy-related limitations like nausea, fatigue, lifting restrictions, the need to avoid certain environmental exposures, the need for more frequent restroom breaks, and postpartum recovery from childbirth all qualify.
The interactive process under the PWFA tracks the ADA’s framework closely. The employee discloses a limitation. The employer engages in a good-faith dialogue to identify the limitation, the requested accommodation, and any alternatives that might also address the limitation. The employer cannot unilaterally substitute an accommodation that does not address the actual limitation. The employer cannot demand medical documentation beyond what is needed to verify the limitation.
The PWFA expressly prohibits requiring an employee to take leave when another reasonable accommodation would allow the employee to continue working. This provision matters because employers have historically responded to pregnancy-related limitations by pushing the employee onto unpaid leave rather than providing the requested accommodation. Forced leave, when other accommodations would have worked, is now itself a violation.
The Maryland Layer
Maryland’s Reasonable Accommodations for Disabilities Due to Pregnancy Act, codified within Md. Code, State Gov’t § 20-609, predates the federal PWFA and continues to apply alongside it. The Maryland statute applies to employers with 15 or more employees, requires reasonable accommodations for disabilities caused or contributed to by pregnancy, and prohibits retaliation against employees who request or use accommodations.
The Maryland statute extends to lactation accommodations and to the related need for breaks and private space. Employers cannot retaliate against employees who request these accommodations. The remedies under the Maryland Fair Employment Practices Act include reinstatement, back pay, compensatory damages, and attorneys’ fees, with damage caps that depend on employer size.
The Maryland filing window for state-law claims is two years for filings with the Maryland Commission on Civil Rights, which is longer than the federal 180-day or 300-day window depending on the cross-filing arrangement with the EEOC. Workers often have meaningful procedural advantages by filing under both frameworks simultaneously, with each statute preserving specific options the other does not.
How Pregnancy Termination Cases Actually Get Built
The patterns that produce strong cases follow a recognizable shape. The most common is the timing pattern. A worker who disclosed pregnancy, requested an accommodation, took leave, or returned from leave, and was terminated within weeks of any of these events, has a strong temporal proximity argument. The closer the termination to the protected activity, the stronger the inference of unlawful motivation.
The shifting performance narrative is the second pattern. Performance reviews that were positive before the pregnancy disclosure or accommodation request, paired with sudden negative reviews afterward, support a pretext argument directly. The contrast between the documentary record before and after the protected activity is often the strongest single piece of evidence in the case.
The accommodation-request-as-trigger pattern is the third. A worker who requested a specific accommodation, faced delays or denials, and was terminated shortly afterward has a case that combines failure-to-accommodate with discriminatory or retaliatory termination theories. The interactive process record, including the worker’s written requests, the employer’s responses or lack of responses, and the timeline of the decision-making, becomes central evidence.
The forced-leave pattern is the fourth. A worker who requested an accommodation and was instead pushed onto unpaid leave, then terminated for absenteeism or for exhausting the leave entitlement, has a strong PWFA claim. The statute’s express prohibition on forced leave when other accommodations would have worked is directly violated by this pattern.
The Role of Documentation in These Cases
Pregnancy and postpartum termination cases turn heavily on documentation. The worker’s written disclosure of the pregnancy. Written accommodation requests. Medical documentation of the limitations. The employer’s responses, both written and electronic. Performance documentation from before and after the disclosure. Communications among supervisors and HR personnel about the worker’s pregnancy or accommodation needs.
The employer’s interactive process records often carry decisive weight. An employer that documented a thorough good-faith dialogue, considered the worker’s request seriously, and offered alternatives that addressed the underlying limitation has a defense. An employer with no records of any interactive process, or with records showing perfunctory or hostile responses, faces a much harder defense.
Internal communications about the pregnancy, even casual ones, become evidence. Comments by supervisors expressing frustration about the timing of the pregnancy, concerns about the worker’s commitment going forward, or assumptions about reduced productivity after childbirth often surface in discovery and damage the employer’s defense considerably.
The Other Theories That Often Run in Parallel
A pregnancy termination case often supports additional theories beyond the pregnancy-specific statutes. FMLA retaliation may apply when the worker took leave covered by FMLA before the termination. ADA disability discrimination may apply when the pregnancy-related condition rose to the level of an ADA disability, including conditions like preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, postpartum depression, and complications affecting major life activities. Sex discrimination claims under Title VII and the Maryland Fair Employment Practices Act often run alongside the pregnancy-specific theories.
The PUMP Act and parallel state lactation accommodation requirements apply specifically to nursing mothers returning to work. A worker terminated after requesting time and space to pump breast milk has claims under these statutes that are distinct from the pregnancy-related claims that preceded them.
The Procedural Pieces That Have to Be Right
A federal PWFA or PDA claim requires filing a charge with the EEOC within 180 days of the discriminatory act, extended to 300 days because Maryland is a deferral state with the Maryland Commission on Civil Rights as the parallel agency. The right-to-sue letter is required before filing in federal court, with a 90-day window after the letter is issued.
The Maryland Fair Employment Practices Act claim runs through the MCCR with a two-year filing window, or directly to circuit court within two years where the procedural rules permit. The two filings are often submitted as a dual-filed complaint to preserve both pathways.
The Next Step If You Were Fired During or After Pregnancy
A Maryland worker terminated during pregnancy, after requesting an accommodation, or after returning from maternity leave should not assume the firing is just an at-will action the employer can defend. The federal PWFA, the federal PDA, and the Maryland statutes together provide a strong framework for cases that fit the recognized patterns. The Mundaca Law Firm represents employees throughout Maryland, and a conversation with the Wrongful Termination Lawyers Maryland professionals at the firm trust will produce a clear-eyed read on the available paths and the realistic timeline. The deadlines on these claims run quickly, and the strongest cases are the ones that move forward while the documentary record is still intact.
