No Pregnant Pause

The women's movement may be hurting elsewhere, but it is healthy in the courts. Last week the Supreme Court ruled that no state can deny unemployment benefits to women during the last three months of pregnancy and the six weeks following birth on the "conclusive presumption" that they are all physically unable to work at that time. The decision overturns a portion of a Utah law upheld last February by the state supreme court. Although Mary Ann Turner, 23, held Kelly Girl temporary jobs during the final months before her son Brian was born, the Utah court ignored such earthly evidence and instead invoked "the Great Creator." Redress, the court declared, could come only in "the repeal of the biological law of nature." The Supreme Court decision may well doom 14 other state laws that almost duplicate Utah's. Especially pleased is Mrs. Turner's American Civil Liberties Union lawyer, Kathleen W. Peratis. She herself is six months pregnant.

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