Quid pro quo sex discrimination refers to the situation in which a male harasser asks for sexual favors from a female subordinate. The phrase is Latin for “something for something”. That is the situation involved in the lawsuit of Stephanie Cordero against Tom Benson Chevrolet and her former supervisor, Ernesto Davila. But, Ms. Cordero goes one step beyond and alleges Mr. Davila forced her to abort the baby when she became pregnant. See San Antonio Express News report. The former employee says she was fired anyway. She worked at Benson Chevrolet from June, 2012 to June, 2014. Mr. Davila was the new car sales manager. Ms. Cordero says she complained about sexual harassment, but the employer did nothing.

The plaintiff says she provided text messages as evidence of the harassment. Her lawyers say they amended the lawsuit to include claims of wrongful death in regard to the forced abortion. They have joined forces with the conservative Texas Justice Foundation. The newspaper describes the TJF as a non-profit that seeks to prevent forced abortions. But, in reality, they do much more. They have been involved in suits to stop the judicial exception to the parental notification statute, in a lawsuit against the state of Texas for supposedly failing to prevent abortions that caused harm to various women, in another suit to seek records regarding school test scores in the Dallas Independent School District, and to stop light rail in Houston.

The suit claims Mr. Davila forced Ms. Cordero to have the abortion. He controlled whether she would have sales or not. That allegation, however, may be a bridge too far. Proving she told the employer about sexual harassment is one thing. But, proving she told the employer about an abortion would require some very clear evidence.