He doesn't need to tell them what it's for if he takes leave, quite right. But he didn't. He made up some cock nd bull story about a personal hospital appointment, didn't even fess up that it wasn't his appt, but his wife's. But we are arguing the same thing anyway - he should have told them he was going with his wife for a hospital appt.
He isn't entitled to take paid time off for that reason, so to do so (and lie by omission that it is for him, so that he is able to get the time off) makes him a crap and unreliable employee, and likely to get into hot water if he gets caught. His employer might have given him the time if he'd been honest.
That isn't to say the entitlement needs to be changed, but to state how his company are likely to view it.
If an employee lied to me, particularly when I had already told them I really needed them to be in because of a staff shortage, and they had claimed they had a personal hospital appointment that couldn't be changed, and I found out they had lied, I would be discussing it with HR.
You don't take time off work you aren't entitled to, and lie to get it, and expect your employer to be all hunky dory.
Completely different to whether the entitlement is right or wrong.
He lied to his employer. End of.
At least it appears in the end he took a day's leave, which is what he should have done in the first instance. Or asked for the morning off to accompany his wife for an appt.
My point about secrecy was really to poke a little bit of fun at the op keeping it a secret from her husband's employer at 20 weeks. Largely because I felt she was being a bit precious. And also because she made it sound as though it was something that needed to be secret. I don't give a flying deck whether they put an ad in the grauniad, or tell no one. But to make a big deal over him lying to his employer because she didn't want them to know she was pg was stretching the 'confidentiality' clause a tad for my liking. He had to lie because I don't them to know!