ANALYZING EMPLOYER MOTIVES - EVALUATING THE SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE UPON WHICH FETAL PROTECTION POLICIES WERE BASED

Throughout the late 1970s and 1980s, many private sector employers ado pted policies barring fertile women, usually defined as all women betw een the ages of 15 and 50, from any jobs that might expose them to kno wn or suspected reproductive or fetal hazards. Employers termed these policies ''fetal protection policies,'' and contended that excluding w omen from the workplace was necessary to prevent fetal exposure to occ upational toxins. This article attempts to evaluate the ''scientific e vidence'' upon which fetal protection policies were based. After defin ing the relevant scientific terms, this article explores the existing federal regulations that aim at limiting both maternal and paternal ex posure to reproductive hazards. It then examines the existing data on the effects of paternal and maternal exposure to occupational toxicant s. This paper concludes that the ''scientific evidence'' upon which fe tal protection policies were based does not definitively establish tha t excluding fertile women will eliminate the risk of fetal harm.