EEOC’s Biden-era rule on abortion protections for workers struck down by judge
May 22, 2025 11:19 AM CDT
May 22 (Reuters) – A federal judge in Louisiana has ruled that the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission cannot require employers to provide accommodations to employees who get abortions, striking down a rule adopted during the administration of Democratic former President Joe Biden.
U.S. District Judge David Joseph in Lake Charles, Louisiana, said on Wednesday, opens new tab that a federal law requiring workplace accommodations for pregnancy does not mention abortion, and the EEOC overstepped its authority by including abortion in a 2024 rule implementing the law.
President Donald Trump in January fired two of the Democratic commissioners who approved the rule and appointed Commissioner Andrea Lucas, a Republican who voted against it, as acting chair. The commission is widely expected to revisit the rule, but currently lacks the required three members to withdraw or change it.
Joseph on Wednesday agreed with the Republican attorneys general of Louisiana and Mississippi, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and other groups affiliated with the Catholic Church that abortion is not a “medical condition” related to pregnancy that employers must accommodate.
He noted that the law, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA), was passed months after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the 2022 case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that the U.S. Constitution does not guarantee a woman’s right to have an abortion.
“Congress was well aware of the implications of Dobbs when it passed the PWFA, and had it wanted to include an abortion accommodation provision in the PWFA, it surely would have done so,” wrote Joseph, who was appointed by Trump during his first term.
Joseph ordered the EEOC to remove language about abortion from its rule, which has various other provisions that were not at issue in the lawsuit. The judge last year had blocked the commission from enforcing the rule against the plaintiffs pending the outcome of the case.
The EEOC and the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which represents the Catholic groups, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.00:04Kanye West arrives at Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs trial
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, a Republican, in a statement called the ruling “a win for Louisiana and for life!”
Congress passed the PWFA which requires accommodations such as time off, more frequent breaks, and limits on heavy lifting, with bipartisan support and the backing of major business groups. Previously, employers were required to grant such accommodations to pregnant women only if they provided accommodations to workers with disabilities as well. The EEOC rule is also being challenged by 17 Republican-led states in Arkansas federal court. The St. Louis-based 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals revived that case in February, ruling that a judge was wrong to conclude that the states lacked legal standing to sue.
The cases are Louisiana v. EEOC and United States Conference of Catholic Bishops v. EEOC, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, Nos. 2:24-cv-00629 and 2:24-cv-00691.