A NEW York woman claims she faced a chilling choice between her unborn baby and her job when her boss discovered that she was pregnant with her third child, according to a federal lawsuit.

Catherine Rizzo, 25, claims there was no way to misinterpret her supervisor's ultimatum at Cooky's Deli in Bohemia, New York, in May.

"The owner's daughter pulled me in the office and basically told me if I didn't have an abortion, I wasn't going to have a job," Ms Rizzo said. "It was very, very clear."

She added, "I have two other kids I have to take care of, and I needed my job."

Cooky's Deli owner Martin Marsilio, 69, vehemently denied the allegation, calling it "a total lie."

The struggling single mum said she was barely getting by on the $US400 to $US500 a week she earned at the deli counter -- and knew she could not afford to lose her job.

"As a direct result of this serious threat, approximately one week later, [I] was forced to terminate [my] pregnancy," Ms Rizzo charged in a lawsuit filed December 19 in Brooklyn federal court. She is seeking unspecified damages.

The unthinkable choice capped months of harassment, Ms Rizzo claims. A co-worker regularly swore at her, pushed her and told her that she was "a lowlife and a bad mother," the Long Island woman claimed in her lawsuit.

Despite the abortion, she was abruptly fired in August, she said.

Her former boss claimed Ms Rizzo was canned for being chronically late and that she never complained about harassment.

The abortion claim is nothing more than "fiction," Mr Marsilio said.

"We have had many female employees here that have gotten pregnant, had their children, took time off and came back to work," he insisted.

Read more at the New York Post