Section 17: Pregnancy and maternity discrimination: non-work cases
Effect
73.This section defines what it means to discriminate because of a woman’s pregnancy or maternity, as distinct from her sex, in specified situations outside work. It protects a woman from discrimination because of her current or a previous pregnancy. It also protects her from maternity discrimination, which includes treating her unfavourably because she is breast-feeding, for 26 weeks after giving birth and provides that pregnancy or maternity discrimination as defined cannot be treated as sex discrimination.
Background
74.This section is designed to replicate the effect of similar provisions in the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 and extends the protection to cover discrimination in relation to public functions, education, and to associations, where no such protection previously existed.
Examples
A café owner must not ask a woman to leave his café because she is breast-feeding her baby.
A shopkeeper must not refuse to sell cigarettes to a woman because she is pregnant.
A school must not prevent a pupil taking an exam because she is pregnant.