Despite clear federal laws barring discrimination against pregnant workers, some corporations still unlawfully treat pregnant employees as if they are second-class citizens. In the latest case to make the news, Walmart refused to make a reasonable accommodation for pregnant employee Whitney Tomlinson in Atlanta after her doctor directed her to avoid heavy lifting for the duration of her pregnancy. Instead of accommodating the request by temporarily assigning her to a different department, Walmart’s human resources department told Tomlinson she needed to apply for unpaid leave from her job — leave she did not want and could not afford.

According to CNN, Walmart told Tomlinson she could not return to work until she was no longer pregnant, and applying for the unpaid leave was the only way to guarantee she would have a job when she came back. Per the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, which has been federal law for about 40 years, pregnant women are protected from workplace discrimination like the discrimination Tomlinson experienced at Walmart. The law seeks to protect women from being unjustly coerced or pressured into considering abortion as the result of economic pressure placed on a pregnant woman by an employer.