Seventeen Republican-led states are suing President Joe Biden’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ( EEOC ) for making it illegal for employers to accommodate workers ‘ abortions.
Following the EEOC’s decision to include abortion in the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act ( PWFA ), attorneys general filed the lawsuit on Friday.  , The PWFA passed with bipartisan assistance in 2022 and did not contain speech about pregnancy. Rather, the law was made to permit reasonable workplace accommodations for pregnant and postpartum women, including time of and flexible breaks, unless the change would cause the employer an unnecessary hardship.
According to Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin,” this is yet another attempt by the Biden administration to push through administrative stablecoins what may get passed through Congress,” said a statement. Business owners may experience federal lawsuits if they refuse to provide employees ‘ abortions, even if the abortions are against state law due to this extreme interpretation of the PWFA. The PWFA was meant to protect babies, never stop them”.
” The new law, passed by a plain 3- 2 preponderance of unelected EEOC commission, goes beyond what Congress authorized under the PWFA”, Griffin added.  ,
The EEOC was given the task of issuing the law and providing illustrations of affordable accommodations when Congress passed the PWFA. The EEOC’s last law includes abortion in its classification of accommodating staff who have “limitations related to … pregnancy, childbirth, or related clinical conditions” and applies the concept to public and private businesses with 15 or more employees.  ,
The EEOC claimed that the ultimate principle “does , never need any staff to have — or not to have — an abortion, does not involve taxpayers to pay for any abortions, and does not convince health care providers to provide any pregnancies. The PWFA even cannot be used to involve an company- sponsored health plan to pay for or cover any specific product, procedure, or treatment, including an abortion”.
On June 24, 2023, pro-choice demonstrators in Washington, DC, staged a rally to commemorate the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in the Dobbs v. Women’s Health Organization case. ( ANDREW CABALLERO- REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images )
According to these restrictions, time off to go to a doctor’s office or for recovery is the most likely option under the PWFA for an abortion, given these restrictions. The PWFA, like the ADA ( Americans with Disabilities Act ), does not require that leave as an accommodation be paid leave, so leave will be unpaid unless the employer’s policies provide otherwise”, the agency clarified.
The inclusion of abortion in the PWFA, according to the attorneys general, is in conflict with the overall legislative intent, which was “pro-family aim.” Before the PWFA’s passage, the lawsuit draws attention to statements from both Democrat and Republican lawmakers who acknowledged that the law was not intended to cover abortion and that the EEOC should not use its influence to limit abortion in its application.
For example, Sen. Bob Casey ( PA ), a Democrat and a sponsor of the PWFA, said:  ,” under the ( PWFA ), the EEOC could not — could not — issue any regulation that requires abortion leave, nor does the act permit the EEOC to require employers to provide abortions in violation of state law”.
Plaintiffs also assert that the EEOC’s inclusion of abortion causes irreparable harm to their states, and that they must “facilitate workers ‘ abortions or face federal suit— even those elective abortions of healthy pregnancies that are illegal under state law.”
The EEOC’s Final Rule mandates that employers provide abortion accommodations to their employees, including in states where abortion is generally prohibited, despite the outpouring of opposition. The complaint states that the EEOC’s Final Rule makes it necessary to accommodate all abortions, even those that are only performed to end a healthy pregnancy and end an unborn child’s life.
Pro- life supporters march in Washington, DC, on January 20, 2023. ( Celal Gunes/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images )
Ultimately, attorneys general are alleging that the rule violates that the , Administrative Procedure Act ( APA ) because the abortion mandate “exceeds the agency ‘ statutory authority”. They are also arguing that the rule is arbitrary and capricious, violates the the rules of federalism, state sovereignty, the First Amendment, and separation of powers.
Further, the lawsuit claims that the EEOC “failed to acknowledge that First Amendment protections cover all employers with religious objections, creating a potential free- exercise problem” and underestimated how much abortion accommodations will cost public and private businesses. Employers will be unable to deny the use of paid leave for abortions, according to the complaint, arguing that if they typically permit employees to use paid leave for other purposes.
Attorneys general estimate the rule encompasses roughly , 117 million employees of private employers, 18.8 million state and local government employees, and 2.3 million federal employees.
The states suing the EEOC include:  , Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, and West Virginia.
Tennessee et. is the subject of the case. al v. EEOC, No. 2: 24- cv- 84- DPM in the U. S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas.  ,
For Breitbart News, Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.
