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The seal of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is displayed on a podium in Denver, Colorado, on February 16, 2016.
CNN
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A judge has suspended new federal orders in two southern states that require employers to give workers who want elective abortions time off to undergo the procedure and recover from it.
U.S. District Judge David C. Joseph on Monday issued an order partially halting new rules being implemented by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, saying the commission exceeded the authority given to it by Congress in proposing the rules. The rule was set to go into effect on Tuesday, but Governor Joseph has blocked the department from enforcing it in Louisiana and Mississippi while those states continue to litigate the rule. Governor Joseph’s order also halts enforcement of the rule against four Catholic churches that have filed their own lawsuits.
In April, the EEOC released final rules under the Pregnant Worker Fairness Act, which Congress passed as part of the federal spending package of 2022. The act, which became law a year ago, requires workplaces to make certain accommodations for pregnant employees related to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions, and applies to employers with 15 or more employees as long as the accommodation does not pose an “undue hardship” to the employer.
The final rule clarified provisions of the law, including a controversial measure to include abortion in the definition of “pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions.” The measure prompted a flood of comments to the committee, with about 54,000 urging it to exclude abortion and about 40,000 urging it to include it.
“If Congress intended to require employers to provide elective abortions under the PWFA, it could have spoken out clearly when crafting the law, especially given the enormous social, religious, and political significance of the abortion issue in our nation at this time (and indeed over the past 50 years),” Joseph, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump, wrote in the opinion.
The judge said the preliminary injunction did not apply to “abortions or terminations of pregnancy resulting from the underlying treatment of a medical condition related to the pregnancy.”
In issuing its final rule, the EEOC noted that the law cannot be used to require workplace-based health insurance to pay for any procedure, including abortion, and noted that the law is a workplace anti-discrimination law.
The law offers a variety of protections to pregnant and postpartum workers, including time off to recover from childbirth, for prenatal or postnatal visits, for postpartum depression, seating, light work, breaks for meals, fluids, and bathroom breaks, and accommodations for breastfeeding and miscarriage. Employers are not required to provide paid leave.
“In its decision, the Court ignored decades of precedent, where pregnancy-related ‘medical conditions’ have long been interpreted to include abortion,” Dina Bakst, co-executive director of the national legal advocacy group A Better Balance, said in a statement. “It is important for pregnant and postpartum workers to understand that this decision does not mean that their rights under the Pregnancy Worker Fairness Act have been taken away, and that the decision does not affect other regulations.”
Monday’s order follows a ruling by a federal judge in Arkansas on Friday to dismiss a challenge by that state and 16 other states to new abortion restrictions. The judge in the case, U.S. District Judge DP Marshall Jr., an Obama appointee, said the state lacked authority to bring the lawsuit, citing a Supreme Court decision last week on a major challenge to access to abortion pills.
This story has been updated with additional information.
