A federal judge granted a preliminary injunction in a case brought by Louisiana, Mississippi and a group of Catholics asking to halt a federal rule that required them to provide workers who wanted to work. Having an Abortion With leave and other facilities.
Judge David Joseph on Monday granted the temporary relief in two consolidated lawsuits — one brought by the attorneys general of Louisiana and Mississippi, and the other by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, a Catholic university and two Catholic dioceses.
The lawsuits challenge Equal Employment Opportunity Commission rules that take effect Tuesday that say abortion is one of the pregnancy-related conditions covered under the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, which took effect last year.
Joseph blocked the EEOC from enforcing a provision of its abortion-related rules against Catholic plaintiffs and employers based in Louisiana and Mississippi while the case is in court.
These lawsuits challenge rules issued by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that list abortion as a pregnancy-related condition that falls under the Pregnant Worker Fairness Act. (Andrew Harrer/Getty Images)
“The district court interpreted the clear words of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act in a common-sense way,” Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said in a statement. The Associated Press.
The ruling was a partial victory for the attorneys general of Louisiana and Mississippi, who had sought a broad emergency injunction blocking the EEOC rules from being enforced nationwide. The request drew concern from some civil rights and women’s advocacy groups, who warned that the EEOC rules were essential to the implementation of the Pregnant Worker Fairness Act.
More than 20 labor, civil rights and women’s advocacy groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Women’s Law Center, cited dozens of cases of pregnant workers being refused accommodations by their employers in an amicus briefing. The groups said the EEOC rules provide clarity for resolving disputes.
“The court has left some pregnant employees who need abortion-related accommodations to fend for themselves,” wrote Gaylene Burroughs, NWLC’s vice president of workplace justice and education.
According to Rachel Shanklin, national women’s entrepreneurship director for Small Business Majority, the limited decision would still have a huge impact because it would make it more difficult for women to obtain abortions in the workplace, even if only temporarily.
“Our research consistently found that women entrepreneurs said the ability to make decisions about starting a family played a key role in their ability to advance their careers and start a small business,” Shanklin said in a statement.
Dina Bakst, president of legal advocacy group A Better Balance, whose organization led the campaign for the law, criticized the decision, claiming it “defies decades of legal precedent” that included abortion in its interpretation of pregnancy-related medical conditions.
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The decision was a partial victory for the attorneys general of Louisiana and Mississippi, who had sought a broad emergency injunction blocking the entirety of the EEOC’s rules from being implemented nationwide. (Getty Images)
But given the limited scope of the injunction, Bakst emphasized that “it’s important for pregnant and postpartum workers to understand that this order does not mean that their rights under the PWFA are taken away.”
The Fairness for Pregnant Workers Act passed with bipartisan support in 2022 after a decade-long campaign by women’s rights advocates, who hailed it as a victory for low-wage workers who were denied perks including time off for medical appointments and the ability to sit or stand at work.
But Many Republicans, Many, including Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy, a co-sponsor of the bill, were outraged that the EEOC claimed the law also covered abortion.
In its rule, the EEOC said the inclusion of abortion was consistent with its decades-old interpretation of pregnancy anti-discrimination law and numerous court decisions supporting that interpretation.
The regulations also state that the rules do not require employers to provide health care coverage that covers abortion and that the most likely accommodation request would be to ask for time to complete the procedure or recover from any complications.
The EEOC said that any situation in which an accommodation request potentially conflicts with state laws will be investigated on a case-by-case basis.
The attorneys general said in their lawsuit that the EEOC is forcing states like Louisiana and Mississippi to go against state law and “effectively facilitate abortion.”
The attorneys general said in their lawsuit that the EEOC is forcing states like Louisiana and Mississippi to go against state law. (Getty Images)
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Mississippi bans most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, while Louisiana’s ban includes exceptions for cases where there is a substantial risk of death or disability to the mother if the pregnancy continues and where the fetus has a fatal abnormality.
The U.S. Catholic Bishops Conference said in its lawsuit that it had publicly supported the Pregnant Worker Fairness Act because lawmakers ensured it wouldn’t be controversial, some of whom had said it would not require leave for elective abortions.
Laura Vock Slavisch, an attorney representing the Catholic groups, said the EEOC “hijacked bipartisan protections for pregnant mothers and their babies and imposed a national abortion-friendly mandate” and that the ruling was an “important step” toward restoring the law “as intended.”
Monday’s decision The incident comes just days after a federal judge in Arkansas dismissed a similar lawsuit filed by 17 states.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
