Too late for this time, but make a note in the future that ANY questions about your taking time off should be answered as “medical issues” or “personal business.” If pressed, you have every right to say, “It’s personal; I’d prefer not to discuss it.”
I believe that an employer is within their rights to request a note from a doctor if you are out more than a specified number of days. There can be different reasons for it: First, to assure that you are out for a real medical issue; second, to assure that you are healthy enough to return to work.
Side note/hijack: This is one reason why it was good to work for persons of the male persuasion at times. All I had to say was that I needed time off for a medical procedure and mention it was “female issues.” This was met with much hand-waving, fingers in the ears, begging to be spared further details!
HIPAA doesn’t protect you from *anyone *blabbing your medical information, just from insurance companies, clearinghouses and members of your healthcare team. It very specifically constrains only “covered entities”, and those don’t generally include your employer.
It may be against some other law (though I don’t think it is), but it’s not a HIPAA violation.
If you work with hazardous materials, including some cleaning products, film developing chemicals or other things that can cause birth defects, then it probably is in her best interest as well as your baby’s to know about and reassign your workload as soon as possible. Redistributing work for employee safety and in the interest of preventing lawsuits is not necessarily illegal discrimination.
