My Coworker Was Pressured To Resign Because She’s Pregnant.

To make a long story short, my coworker just informed me that she won’t be here for that much longer because she had to resign because our employer cannot make accommodations for her pregnancy. Said coworker was recently out for three weeks after she was rushed to the hospital due to pregnancy complications, they put her on bedrest for three weeks, then gave her the OK to go back to work but with certain restrictions. Mainly that she can’t be lifting heavy objects and needs to take breaks every so often. When I heard of this, I didn’t think there would be any problem because there’s plenty of things for her to do that, don’t require her to lift heavy things.( For context, months ago when I had back surgery I also had weight restrictions for a little while when I came back to work eventually, employer had no issues with this) apparently even though she had a doctors note, there was some miscommunication because they still gave her task that required some heavy lifting. She brought this up to our Bosses attention, and some how this made it to HR, and she was called in to our HR’s office. There they apparently had a long conversation where the HR manager basically pressured my coworker into signing resignation papers, after telling her that they weren’t able to accommodate her properly and she’s not pulling her weight. Even faked being empathetic by saying “ this is the right decision to keep her in the baby safe”. My coworker expressed that she felt that she had to sign it because she was afraid that if she didn’t they were just going to end up firing her anyways. She even tried compromising with them by asking if there was any other positions she could do inside the company, but they weren’t hearing any of it. When I heard this, I was shocked and confused, because I was pretty sure that, A- it’s illegal to fire someone for being pregnant, or not giving them their accommodations, and B-there was plenty of stuff for her to do that didn’t require heavy lifting.

My coworker was really distraught on what she was gonna do and was afraid that she was going to have trouble finding another job. I was also upset because we are already understaff. It was especially hard when she was out on bedrest, everyone was stressed and overworked. Since she’s come back, the workload has been a lot more even, so it’s bullshit that a they told her she’s not pulling her weight. I know that she already signed the resignation papers so there’s not much she can do, but I just wanted some advice to give her. (More context: we work in a kitchen, specifically the pastry department )Can she take back the resignation? if not, is there anything stopping her from reapplying for the job again because I’m pretty sure it’s illegal to not hire someone simply because they’re pregnant. I feel really bad because if I had spoken to her before she went to HR I would’ve told her that they technically can’t fire her for simply being pregnant and not being able to lift things? I don’t know maybe I’m mistaken on the PDA/ADA laws.