other companies, such as, General Motors, Allied Chemical, and B.F. Goodrich joined Johnson Controls in adopting fetus protection policies. These policies included working conditions that these companies believed to be hazardous to the potential offspring of women. The United States Court of Appeals judged Johnson Controls’ policy to be “reasonably necessary to the industrial safety-based concern of protecting the unborn child from lead exposure”2. In this decision, the United States Court of Appeals in my opinion was sending a message that they believed women were not capable of making the right decision. The unions contended that this “policy discriminates against women, jeopardizing their hard-won gains in male-dominated industries”3. Women advocates believed that policies like Johnson Controls and others “not only challenged a woman’s right to control her fetus but to control her unfertilized eggs”4. Isabelle Kant Pizler, director of women’s rights at the American Civil Liberties Union said, “since time immemorial, the excuse for keeping women in their place has been because of their role in producing the next generation “5. The American Civil Liberties Union argued in court, “since no activity is risk-free, deference to an employer’s analysis of fetal risk could limit women’s participation in nearly every area of economic life”6. A woman has a right to make her own choice where to work or anything else. If a woman accepts the personal responsibility to work at Johnson Controls with the knowledge of the chemical and its dangers, she also accepts the personal responsibility for anything that could possibly happen to her offspring. There are many reasons why a person might work a dangerous job, (i.e. the pay in their mind out ways the risk); regardless of the reason, it should be their choice. I do not believe the policy that ...
