Bishops File Lawsuit Against EEOC for Including Abortion in Regulations

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, along with other Catholic groups, filed a lawsuit on May 22 against a federal agency for including abortion in regulations implementing a law aimed at adding protections for pregnant workers in the workplace.

The final regulations on the Pregnant Worker Fairness Act, issued in April by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, provide employees with protections regarding time off and other work accommodations for pregnancy-related conditions, such as miscarriage, stillbirth and lactation. but also abortion, which was opposed by many of the bill’s supporters, including the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

USCCB supported passage of the law because it had “nothing to do with abortion”

USCCB spokeswoman Chieko Noguchi told OSV News on May 23 that the conference “enthusiastically supported the passage of this bill because it had nothing to do with abortion.”

The conference, Noguchi said, supported the legislation’s “reasonable accommodations and elements such as paid leave and modified work schedules.”

“We support this because we believe it is important to protect the well-being of expectant mothers and their unborn children,” she added.

USCCB spokeswoman: EEOC regulation ‘directs employers to accept employee abortion’

“But the EEOC, which is an unelected federal agency, has taken control of a law that makes no mention of abortion at all,” she said, adding that the EEOC regulation “directs employers to accept employee abortions.”

Therefore, she said, the regulation would in effect force the USCCB to “knowingly support workers who receive abortions and prohibit us from encouraging them to choose life.”

“It prohibits us from acting in accordance with Church teaching,” Noguchi said. “That’s why we filed the lawsuit.”

The final regulations of the act were published in April

An EEOC spokesperson referred OSV News to the Department of Justice for comment. The latter did not respond immediately.

EEOC regulations govern the implementation of the Pregnant Employee Fairness Act, bipartisan legislation passed by Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden in December 2022. The act took effect in June 2023 and prohibits employment practices that discriminate against employees on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth “or related conditions.” The final regulations of the Act were published in April 2024.

The legislation was supported by many pro-life activists, including the USCCB. However, the EEOC’s post-enactment regulation governing the implementation of this Act included broad language that included abortion among “related medical conditions” and the potential circumstances in which employers may need to provide workplace accommodations, such as time off for medical appointments or additional rest breaks.

In an April 15 statement about the final rule, EEOC Chairwoman Charlotte A. Burrows said the law “will ensure that pregnant workers have clear access to reasonable accommodations that will enable them to perform their jobs safely and effectively, without discrimination or retaliation.”

“Congress was right and the EEOC was wrong.”

Becket, a religious liberty law firm based in Washington, D.C., filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana on behalf of the USCCB, as well as the Catholic University of America and the dioceses of Lake Charles and Lafayette in Louisiana.

The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, states that “Congress was right and the EEOC was wrong.”

“PWFA is not a mandate to provide abortion accommodations. Rather, it fills a gap in federal labor law by providing workplace accommodations to pregnant women to protect their pregnancies and their unborn children,” it said.

Daniel Blomberg, vice president and senior legal counsel for Becket, told OSV News the case is important because the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act itself is “really good law.”

“This is about protecting pregnant women and their children in the workplace,” Blomberg said. “The idea is that you want to have a healthy pregnancy and a healthy birth, and that’s great for a healthy country. That’s why the USCCB supported this law. That’s why many people supported this bipartisan legislation.”

However, he said, “this law has been hijacked by a partisan EEOC that is trying to use the healthy pregnancy law to force abortion on employers across the country, including religious employers, which is simply wrong.”

Asked what the EEOC could do to address the problem from Becket’s perspective, Blomberg replied: “It’s an easy solution: do what Congress said.”

“Congress said, ‘We are here to protect pregnancy and childbirth,'” he said. “So let’s protect pregnancy and childbirth.”

“The main elements of this bill concern the protection of mothers protecting children,” Blomberg added. “Great. That’s good. We should do it.”

Catholic University releases statement regarding lawsuit against EEOC

Peter Kilpatrick, Catholic University’s president, said in a May 23 statement regarding the university’s lawsuit against the EEOC that the school “has demonstrated our commitment to supporting mothers who are a critical part of our community.” He pointed to Catholic University’s Guadalupe Project, which was created to support expectant mothers on campus, saying, “We will continue this work.”

He added that the EEOC regulation creates the potential for “significant liability for employers who express and enforce life-affirming policies and practices in the workplace” and reduces religious protections.

“The Catholic University of America Community has an unwavering commitment to maintaining the sanctity of life and supporting pregnant women and mothers in the workplace,” Kilpatrick said. “We strongly reject any suggestion of tension between these two fundamental obligations. We can – and do – support women in starting a family, and we believe that this can be done wholeheartedly while supporting the dignity of life at all stages. Our mission to cultivate a culture of love, respect and compassion demands nothing less.”

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Kate Scanlon is a national reporter for OSV News covering Washington. Follow her on X (formerly Twitter) @kgscanlon.

Tags: Abortion, USCCB