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Firing of Unwed Pregnant Teacher from Catholic School Opposed by Pro-Life Group

By Terry Vanderheyden

NEW YORK, February 22, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – An unwed pre-school teacher fired from a Queens, New York, Catholic school for becoming pregnant has the backing of a pro-life group in a legal suit against the diocese.

Feminists for Life supports the lawsuit filed by the New York Civil Liberties Union on behalf of Michelle McCusker, 26, who was fired in October after only one month on the job. “Feminists for Life supports the NYCLU in protecting women from pregnancy discrimination because it pits a woman against her own child by forcing her to choose between her career and her pregnancy, and because it effectively discriminates against female employees by providing a different standard as compared to similarly situated male employees,” the group said in a release.

According to court documents, Michelle McCusker was hired to teach pre-kindergartners at the St. Rose of Lima School in Rockaway Beach on September 7, 2005. Her teaching contract was to last for one year, but a month after school began, McCusker informed the school’s principal that she was pregnant and planned to have the child. Two days later, the principal told McCusker that she was being terminated because she violated the school’s religious principles by becoming pregnant while unmarried, even though she conceived before she was hired. The school principal said she could work only until the end of October. McCusker said she is “devastated.”

“The school requires its teachers to convey the faith, to convey the gospel values and Christian traditions of the Catholic faith,” argued Diocese of Brooklyn spokesman Frank DeRosa, according to ABC News coverage.

“When an employer fires a woman for carrying a child to term, they send an unintended message: An abortion will cover up the sex,” said Serrin Foster, president of Feminists for Life. “The compassionate response to a woman who is carrying a child should be to ask if she needs help, rather than cause a crisis for her by taking her career, her income, and the obstetric/prenatal care that is critical to the health and well being of both mother and unborn child. Women deserve better.”

Feminists for Life believes that no employer should put a woman in a situation where she has to choose between sacrificing her education or career plans and sacrificing her children. According to the Guttmacher Institute, Planned Parenthood’s research arm, a lack of practical resources and emotional support are the primary overarching reasons that drive women to abortion.

See ABC News coverage:
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=1641467&page=1

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