Judge Ruled Job Could Order Women Yo Be Sterilized

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Fetal Rights - Willow Island, West Virginia, Women Paid The Price Of Fetal Protection Policies

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The American Cyanamid plant in Pleasants County, after refusing for decades to hire women, was required in the 1970's to open production jobs to female workers.  In 1978, the plant instituted a "fetal protection policy" which barred all unsterilized women between the ages of sixteen and fifty from working with twenty-eight of the twenty-nine chemicals used at the plant; the chemical with which women were allowed to work was lead, and eventually the company offered women workers in that division the option of sterilization if they wanted to keep their jobs.  Five women had the surgery done in Parkersburg.  Here is a story on the event from the Time Trail of West Virginia.

October 2, 1978: Willow Island's American Cyanamid plant enforces fetal protection policy

American Cyanamid's decision to prohibit women of child-bearing age from working in production jobs at the company's plant at Willow Island in Pleasants County stemmed from the fear that certain chemicals might cause birth defects. In the late 1970s, the company began enforcing a fetal protection policy and, on October 2, 1978, American Cyanamid decided that women could only be exposed to lead. Since workers at the Willow Island plant were required to handle many different chemicals, this fetal protection policy had drastic consequences for women employees. Five women who worked in the plant's pigment department believed they had to be sterilized to keep their jobs.
In early 1979, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) inspected the Willow Island plant and fined American Cyanamid $10,000. OSHA contended the company's fetal protection policy constituted a hazard of employment because it had, in effec