The Pregnancy Story

[erpowers]

This morning ABC did a story about the Soap Opera star that is suing ABC claiming they terminated her because she got pregnant. The anchor conducting the story mentioned that the 1964 Voting Rights Act prevented employers from firing a woman just because she became pregnant. Does anyone know how this provision got into that bill?

From what I heard years ago that provision got into the bill because a male senator was trying to stop the Voting Rights Act from passing. The way the story goes is that a senator came up with the idea that the men in the Senate would not pass a bill if it had provisions protecting women's rights; therefore, senator put provisions like the pregnancy issue in the bill. To the surprise of that senator the bill passed with all the women's rights things included in the bill. So not only did he not stop the Voting Rights Bill from passing he inadvertently help women of the future with some of their discrimination issues.

I did a little research of my own and only found two stories on the issue of the senator who put this provision in the bill. According to Wikipedia the senator was Senator Howard Worth Smith. According to Wikipedia, Smith actually put the provision in the bill because of his relationship with members of the women's rights movement. I found a congressional page, but that page did not mention the Voting Rights Act in Smith's Biography.

[demnan]

1. Hahahaha!

I never heard that one! I'll have to luck that up. Probably made some old bigot green in the face!