Judge protects thousands of Catholic employers from federal rules requiring leave for abortion and in vitro treatments

CNN
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A federal judge in North Dakota ruled Monday that the federal government cannot enforce new rules requiring employers to provide leave for abortion and fertility treatments against thousands of Catholic employers across the country while their lawsuit challenging the rules is pending.

More than 7,000 Catholic parishes and 1,380 Catholic employers have been hit with a new preliminary order issued by U.S. District Judge Daniel Traynor, a Trump appointee in Bismarck.

The plaintiffs, the Catholic Benefits Association and the Catholic Diocese of Bismarck, argued that their religious rights were violated because the regulations required them to accommodate employees’ requests for abortions or “immoral methods of infertility treatment.”

Traynor’s order sharply criticized the Biden administration’s approach to the new rules, writing of the “danger of government actions that are clearly anti-religious” and arguing that “there should be no legal challenge to the Agency’s violation of the constitutional rights of Americans.”

While at least one other judge has issued a preliminary ruling against the abortion accommodation order, Traynor’s ruling was the first to address the rule requiring accommodations for infertility treatments, according to the National Women’s Law Center. Traynor additionally halted enforcement of transgender protections in the new workplace law against Catholic organizations challenging the rule.

In court documents, the Biden administration argued that the regulations — which the EEOC is implementing under a 2022 law called the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act — would not burden their religious rights or free speech. But Traynor said that “at the very least, (Catholic Benefits Association’s) actions would violate the anti-retaliation provision because the employee would be fired for violating her Catholic faith by requesting an accommodation for the conduct at issue in the dispute.”

In a footnote, the judge wrote: “Unchecked government power creates martyrs like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, imprisoned and executed for expressing opposition to euthanasia and the persecution of Jews; Miguel Pro, arrested and ultimately executed for violating Mexico’s anti-Catholic Calles Law; and Thomas More, famously executed by the British king for the crime of silence.”

The Justice Department declined to comment.

The ruling was reported earlier by LawDork.

The case is one of several legal challenges to the rules the EEOC has created under the PWFA. Another judge, in a separate lawsuit filed in Louisiana, has blocked enforcement of abortion accommodation orders against other Catholic entities, as well as in Louisiana and Mississippi.

On Tuesday, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which would oversee an appeal of Traynor’s ruling, will hear arguments in a separate challenge to the abortion accommodations law brought by several Republican-led states. In that case, a trial judge dismissed their challenge, finding that the states lacked standing to sue.

The EEOC rule has been controversial from the outset, prompting the agency to emphasize that it does not require employers to pay for abortions or provide paid leave for the procedure.

Finalized in mid-April, the rules require most employers to offer “reasonable accommodations” to employees related to pregnancy or childbirth, including providing time off for abortions. Other protections under the law include time off for postpartum recovery and prenatal or postpartum visits, as well as accommodations for sitting, light duties, breastfeeding, and breaks for food, water, and toileting.

The question of whether abortion should be included in the bill’s definition of “pregnancy, childbirth or related medical condition” prompted a flood of comments to the committee, with some 54,000 urging the committee to exclude abortion and some 40,000 urging it to be included.

“When it comes to abortion, the PWFA requirements are narrow and likely only apply to a leave request by a qualified employee,” the commission said in an April statement.

The EEOC also included infertility and infertility treatments in the regulation’s definition of “pregnancy, childbirth or related medical condition.”