Not since Lucy became pregnant with Little Ricky in 1952 have television viewers been so concerned with on-air pregnancy. Nearly a dozen television celebrities--including Deborah Norville, Maria Shriver, Connie Chung, Meredith Vieira and Katie Couric--tell us that they are pregnant, hoping to be pregnant or have had a baby.

In the intimacy that television now fosters between celebrity and viewer, one supposes that this would be happy news. Yet Chung, Norville and Vieira met with criticism and ridicule from network executives and other Establishment voices. These high-profile conflicts reflect what is happening in the ordinary workplace, where pregnancy and motherhood are considered distasteful problems, not achievements worthy of respect and celebration.

Today, an unprecedented number of women are both pregnant and employed; 71% will work during the last trimester. This trend is particularly strong among baby-boomer professional women now in their 30s and well-established in their careers. Between 1983 and 1986, the birth rate among all women over age 30 increased by 25%.

As on-the-job pregnancy increases, so does on-the-job discrimination. Last year, the Equal Employment Commission received 2,823 maternity-related complaints.

Legal actions represent only the tip of the iceberg. Pregnant workers frequently experience subtler forms of workplace discrimination: lost promotions and raises, less-challenging work assignments, patronizing or resentful co-workers and behind-the-back slurs about lack of professional commitment.

What do these trends tell us about our society? For many feminists and family policy advocates, the answer is obvious: Women still face discrimination on the job; and business and government must adopt new policies to promote and empower women in the workplace. This is the familiar answer, and there is much truth to it.

But these trends also point to another, perhaps deeper, social dilemma: the new degradation of pregnancy in America; our society simply does not favor or like pregnant women.

Among the most fundamental values of our culture today, especially among elites, are personal autonomy and marketplace achievement, accompanied by the idea that there is not, or at leastought not to be, much significant difference between men and women. Quite simply, pregnancy is a biological insult to these values.