Why should an employer (or the gov't, for that matter) pay for maternity leave? Pregnancy is a concequence of a series of decisions that a person (female) makes. Other than the forced sex thing, maternal leave should be taken out of vacation time (accrued or pending). If the recipient of leave quits before leave is paid back, employers should be able to sue for deficite time.
If I was an employer I would never hire female workers unless I made plastic flowers. Not worth the trouble that they repersent. Yeah, I know I made no friends with this post. Don't care.