According to a post that went viral last week, a woman who believed she was simply taking a drug test for work said she was unexpectedly tested for pregnancy.

The story was shared by Claire McKay Bowen, a research associate specializing in data privacy at the Urban Institute. Bowen's tweet received over 163k likes and approximately 20k retweets in a short period of time.

Twitter universe. My friend did a drug test for a part time job for the local school district," Bowen said on Tuesday. "When she got her results, she found out that the district also did a pregnancy test. Besides ethical issues, this seems like a legal red flag given she wasn't told this would be done.

Bowen stated in a followup tweet that neither she nor her buddy could find any kind of written consent. They were evaluating their options by checking over the state's laws.

Bowen declined to reveal anything further due to the sensitivities of this situation.

The story was shared on Reddit by u/Suspendthepres. People on Reddit quickly retort their thought against this unethical test.


baislogia said:

No way this shit can be legal ...right? (Please tell me it can't be)

WhatTheOnEarth replied:

From what I understand unless you are imprisoned, legally incompetent, or it’s an emergency there is nothing that allows for testing without your consent.
And you’d have to consent or be aware of every test as blanket consent is not considered consent.
This doesn’t exempt you from an employer asking you to be drug tested for your employment. You can choose to not take the job. But there is no legal ground for them (depending on where you live) to add a test you didn’t consent to.

4b0rT3d added:

It is completely illegal to discriminate based on pregnancy. This person may very well have a legal case for discrimination as well.



Pregnant women are protected by the Pregnancy Discrimination Act which is a federal law that prohibits sex discrimination on the basis of pregnancy. The law applies to employers with 15 or more employees and makes it illegal for employers to discriminate against women who are pregnant or who have recently given birth.

The Pregnancy Discrimination Act requires that pregnant women be treated the same as other employees who are similar in their ability or inability to work. For example, if an employer provides leave to employees who are injured or sick, the employer must also provide leave to pregnant women who need it for medical reasons.

The Pregnancy Discrimination Act also prohibits employers from forcing pregnant women to take leave or from firing them because they are pregnant.

If you believe that you have been the victim of pregnancy discrimination, you should contact the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission(EEOC)

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