the possibility of taking extra jobs like private parties is not regulated by the police department itself, right? Isn't it the case that the private hirers themselves avoid pregnant cops? If this is the case, I don't see how this could be avoided.

In general, of course, the idea of putting them behind a desk rather than at home looks better. But anyway--don't they get maternity leave too?

One of the issues about this is that the cops are kinda militaristic. In the military, everyone, including cooks and water carriers, have to be able to step up the breach and fire a gun and duck shrapnel. Indeed, everyone has to be able to step up the chain of command if several steps of it are suddenly removed. That is called combat. Cops very very very rarely do combat, in the real world.

This is not really relevant to policing, but the wannabe ethos of the cops makes that a strong factor; everybody has to be able to step up to every potential job, right now, or you aren't a real cop.

Most cop street type work isn't particularly violent. I can see no reason at all that a preggers, even very preggers, cop couldn't operate a radar gun and hand out speeding tickets.

But expand it to other dangerous jobs: firefighters, miners, construction workers, whatever. Most of them do not have automatic protect the pregnant lady rules, judgments of risk are probably best made by those at risk, not big daddy, and the pregnant woman can make her own choices, and not have the system make them for her. The rigid, give you the shaft, stick it to you system.

Because, at the end of the day, having a baby is just uncoplike, really.

I'm going to try and steer clear of the "Fargo" jokes....

The argument that pregnant cops should be forced off duty is dangerously close to recognizing the rights of the fetus over the woman. It is her body! And exactly how pregnant does someone have to be before the male chief of police (because they are usually male) decide that you are putting your baby in danger??? It is your fetus! This argument reminds me of when women first started becoming police officers--How dare she put herself in danger?!?!? She is a woman!?!? and too emotional to do police work (**as if most police work was not harassing the poor anyway)?!?!? Her pregnancy will make her look feminine and thus weak?!?

what a joke.

but man my heart actually hurt when I went to that link. It shouldn't matter more that she was killed while pregnant, but for some reason it does.

Pregnancy is neither a disability, a handicap, or a reason to take a female cop off the stree in the first two trimesters. Women do all sorts of things while pregnant. I knew a woman that barrel raced in rodeos through her eighth month. That horse could have fallen and injured the woman and the fetus at any time, but it was a sure-footed horse and she knew it. I saw her take that gray horse around the barrels in a rain and lightening storm. It was incredible. At stake was several thousand dollars and a championship. She won that championship for her competition.

Her business. Her decision. Because it's the woman's body.

When I was pregnant, my doctor grounded me from my horse for nothing more than it being his usual policy. Since working cattle on horseback was my main means of exercise, all this accomplished was to make me fat and resentful.

If for emotional reasons or because her doctor encourages it a woman needs to be reassigned to a desk job, then that's one thing, but to assume that a woman has no right to do her job just because she is pregnant is nothing but discrimination. Moreover, it will keep women from progressing on the job and force them to make unnecessary choices between being a mother and being a cop.

Just because a woman is pregnant, doesn't mean her decisions belong to someone else. They should still belong to her.

" one of the plaintiffs, Angelica Robinson, worked a desk job. She was perfectly capable of performing her duties without endangering herself, her baby or society."

Her baby? I thought until the bioplasm exited the vagina "it" was a nothing?

As for the "it's her body" crapola...get over it. Society tells everyone every day what they can and can't do with their bodies. You can't move your body 200MPH on highways. You can't put heroin in "your body." You can't claim ownership of diamonds you ingest into your body in jewelry stores. You CAN be ordered to have your body searched by authorities.

Etc.

This non-sense that fembots chunk up about having eternal and endless "rights" over their bodies is nuts. As soon as you decide to leave your cave and join a community you give up absolute bodily rights. When cops say, "Spread 'em!" you WILL.

Of course feminists, who are nothing but little girls, think themselves exempt. They can do with their bodies and unicorns and pink ponies whatever they like. It's just MALES who are to be ordered about.

"Her business. Her decision. Because it's the woman's body."

Of course if she'd been injured it would have been men's fault for letting her put herself in danger, for not "caring enough" about a woman obviously imbalanced by hormones, etc. The point it to make others pay for individual female's failures.

Feminists say women are feisty, tough, and equal....unless they gain by saying women are hobbled, weak, unequal, etc.

Same old inconsistent story.

Pregnancy is not an illness. During most of your pregnancy, you can do pretty much what you did before - actually, you can do MORE and BETTER for several months. Your heart enlarges, and you have much more blood going around: you're as bodily as strong as you will ever be. A healthy pregnancy is part of a healthy woman's normal life.

The few things pregnant women shouldn't do (like smoking, drinking alcohol, or being exposed to X-rays, chemical mutagens and cat poop) would I guess not be part of a policeman's routine work.