LAKE CHARLES, Louisiana (LifeSiteNews) — A Louisiana judge has overturned a rule from former U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration forcing employers to provide time off for abortions.
On May 21, U.S. District Judge David Joseph for the Western District of Louisiana ruled to overturn a portion of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) which required employers to accommodate employees who choose to have an abortion.
“[T]he record before the Court clearly establishes that the EEOC [Equal Employment Opportunity Commission] has exceeded its statutory authority to implement the PWFA and, in doing so, both unlawfully expropriated the authority of Congress and encroached upon the sovereignty of the Plaintiff States under basic principles of federalism,” Joseph said in the decision.
In 2022, the EEOC passed the PWFA to ensure that employers with more than 15 employees provided their staff with accommodations for pregnancy. Accommodations included time off for medical appointments and relief from heavy lifting.
However, in fall 2024, the Biden administration’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) proposed a rule to define “pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions” in the PWFA as encompassing “having or choosing not to have an abortion.”
The amendment passed by a 3-2 vote along party line, forcing employers to support their employee’s abortion procedure.
As explained at the time by Miller and Republican U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, the PWFA does not include abortion in its text, and in fact the lawmakers who enacted it said they did so with the express understanding that it did not confer any requirement to facilitate, assist, or accommodate a decision to abort. Some warned two years earlier that the PWFA could be used to infringe on pro-life employers’ conscience rights, yet it passed with the support of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).
Since then, several states, religious entities, and conservative groups challenged the rule, securing a ruling last month that they would not be forced to pay for abortion in insurance plans.
In June 2024, Joseph issued a preliminary injunction which delayed the enforcement of the “abortion accommodation mandate” in Louisiana and Mississippi. This injunction was kept in place until Joseph overturned the rule earlier this month.
In his ruling, Joseph pointed out that the Biden administration violated “major questions doctrine” in their attempt to force employers to support abortion.
“[T]he Court vacates the ‘abortion accommodation mandate’ as described herein and remands this matter to the EEOC to revise the Final Rule and all related Implementing Regulations and Guidance in accordance with this Order,” Joseph declared.
