A teacher who used a sperm donor to get pregnant has been awarded $200,000 after the Catholic school she worked for fired her.
Religion versus human rights strikes again, this time in Ohio, where a Roman Catholic archdiocese allegedly fired a teacher after school leaders learned she was pregnant through a sperm donor.
A jury decided the archdiocese must pay nearly $200,000 to former computer instructor Christa Dias, who said she was fired by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati in October 2010 after she told her bosses about her pregnancy.
Dias’ lawyer said his client was fired because she was pregnant and unmarried.
The attorney representing the archdiocese argued Dias was dismissed because artificial insemination breaches church doctrine, and her contract required employees follow Catholic social principles, However the jury disagreed.
The jury decided this week the archdiocese had in discriminated against Dias and awarded her more than $170,000, including $51,000 in back-pay, $20,000 in compensatory damages and $100,000 in punitive damages, according to The Associated Press.
