The state law banning discrimination against pregnant women does not protect new mothers who take unauthorized breaks to use a breast pump, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled yesterday.

In a 5-1 ruling, justices said a suburban Cincinnati company was within its rights to fire an employee who snuck off to pump her breasts an hour before her scheduled break.

LaNisa Allen, then 35, was fired in August 2005 by the outerwear manufacturer Totes/Isotoner in West Chester after a supervisor caught her pumping milk during her scheduled work time.

Allen was storing the milk for her son, then 5 months old.

She sued, claiming that the state's pregnancy-discrimination law applies to lactating mothers because lactation is a natural consequence of pregnancy.

A trial court and an appeals court ruled against Allen, and the Supreme Court affirmed those decisions.

The state's highest court did not rule on whether the pregnancy law covers new mothers who are lactating. Instead, the court said Allen missed her chance to put that question to the test by taking breaks without permission instead of seeking an accommodation.

"In this case, the evidence in the record demonstrates that Allen took unauthorized breaks from her workstation, and Isotoner discharged her for doing so," the court wrote in an unsigned opinion.

Justice Paul E. Pfeifer dissented, and Justice Judith Lanzinger said the court should not have taken the case in the first place.

Pfeifer wrote that the court should have determined whether lactating mothers are entitled to the same anti-discrimination protections as pregnant women.

"Ohio's working mothers who endure the uncomfortable sacrifice of privacy that almost necessarily accompanies their attempt to remain on the job and nourish their children deserve to know whether Ohio's pregnancy-discrimination laws protect them," Pfeifer wrote.

The attorney for Totes/Isotoner, Timothy P. Reilly, said the case was never about pregnancy or motherhood.

"Totes has taken the position since the beginning of this case that it terminated the plaintiff (Allen) for a proper reason, and that's that she took unauthorized work breaks, regardless of her sex or condition," Reilly said.

Allen's attorney, John H. Forg III, could not be reached yesterday.

Kellie Copeland, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio, an abortion-rights group, said she hopes employers won't interpret the ruling as an invitation to deny new mothers breaks for breast-pumping.

"If a woman chooses to breastfeed, we as a society should do whatever we can do to accommodate her, regardless of what the law may say," Copeland said. "This isn't like taking any other break to smoke cigarettes."