‘The Great Texas Lactation Debate’ whether breast milk pumping is a pregnancy related condition  

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is acting for a Texas mother who was fired days after she asked her employer about a room to pump breast milk. A judge ruled that after the woman gave birth the former employee 'was no longer pregnant and her pregnancy-related conditions ended.' 

In February 2012, a federal judge ruled that a Houston mother could not sue a debt collection agency for firing her after she asked if she could use a back room to pump breast milk. She alleged sex discrimination. "Firing someone because of lactation or breast-pumping is not sex discrimination," U.S. District Judge Lynn N. Hughes said in the case of Donnicia Venters, who is represented by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The commission has appealed the ruling to the 5th   U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, arguing that "firing a female worker because she is lactating ... imposes a burden on that female worker that a comparable male employee simply could never suffer. That is the essence of sex discrimination." It also says Venters' former employer, Houston Funding in Houston, violated the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978. 

The EEOC's appeal is being supported by the Texas Medical Association and the Texas Pediatric Society. " 'Related medical conditions' includes all pregnancy and childbirth associated conditions relating to the study or practice of medicine," they argue in an amicus brief. "Since the yielding of milk by mammary glands is a medical condition caused by pregnancy and childbirth, lactation is a 'related medical condition' as contemplated by Title VII."