On Wednesday, May 21, a federal judge in Louisiana struck down regulations that require most U.S. employers to provide their employees with time off and other accommodations for abortions. Abortions are one of many pregnancy-related medical conditions covered under the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, which passed in December 2022 with the goal of improving the rights of pregnant workers.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission decided to include accommodations for abortion among the “reasonable accommodations” covered in their regulations on how to implement the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. Since PWFA passed, this inclusion of abortion as a pregnancy-related condition has prompted several lawsuits, chipping away at what used to be strong bipartisan support for the law. By striking down the PWFA’s abortion accommodation requirement, U.S. District Judge David Joseph of the Western District of Louisiana sided with the conservative politicians and antiabortion groups lobbying to remove this element from the legislation.
According to Joseph, whom Trump appointed during his first term, if Congress had intended for the PWFA to cover abortion, “It would have spoken clearly when enacting the statute, particularly given the enormous social, religious, and political importance of the abortion issue in our nation at this time.” Joseph’s ruling comes in the wake of two lawsuits from the attorneys general of Louisiana and Mississippi and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Catholic University and two Catholic dioceses.
Louisiana currently has a total abortion ban with very limited exceptions. The state has been in the news this year for indicting New York doctor Margaret Carpenter for mailing abortion pills to patients in Louisiana (legal under New York’s shield laws).
In a statement, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill wrote, “Victory! A federal court has granted Louisiana’s request to strike down an EEOC rule requiring employers to accommodate employees’ purely elective abortions. This is a win for Louisiana and for life!” Meanwhile, legal advocacy group A Better Balance criticized Joseph’s ruling. According to A Better Balance’s president Inimai Chettiar, “This court’s decision to deny workers reasonable accommodations for abortion-related needs is part of a broader attack on women’s rights and reproductive freedom.”
