A federal judge in Louisiana has struck down a provision of a rule for implementing the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) that required employers to consider workplace accommodation requests related to abortion.
Judge David C. Joseph, a Trump appointee, found on May 21 that an EEOC rule treating abortion as a “related medical condition” under the PWFA is unconstitutional as it goes further than the original legislation. Joseph said the EEOC must revise the rule, which was finalized in April 2024, to comply with the court’s order.
Although employers will no longer have to consider accommodations for elective abortions as a result of this ruling, the judge clarified that the order doesn’t apply to abortions tied to treatment for a pregnancy-related medical condition.
Latest legal blow to Biden-era rule. Judge Joseph granted a win to the Trump administration by vacating part of the EEOC’s rule for implementing the PWFA, issued when President Joe Biden was in office. EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas voted against the rule when she was serving as a commissioner, and has said she wants the agency to “reconsider portions” of it.
The EEOC’s decision to include abortion as a “related medical condition” for which workers can seek accommodations under the PWFA prompted a number of lawsuits from Republican-led states and religious organizations. The law itself, which passed with bipartisan support in December 2022, doesn’t address abortion.
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Joseph noted the timing of the PWFA’s passage—which occurred six months after the Supreme Court overturned the federal right to an abortion—in his opinion. “Congress was well aware of the implications of Dobbs when it passed the PWFA, and had it wanted to include an abortion accommodation provision in the PWFA, it surely would have done so,” he wrote.
What this means for HR. Absent a highly unlikely appeal of Judge Joseph’s ruling by the Trump administration, employers will no longer be required to consider accommodation requests from workers seeking elective abortions as a result of this decision.
Employers should note, however, that the ruling doesn’t apply to “abortions stemming from the underlying treatment of a medical condition related to pregnancy.”
Covered businesses still must comply with the PWFA, which requires employers with 15 or more employees to provide “reasonable accommodations” to workers who are pregnant, have given birth, or are experiencing a related medical condition unaffected by this ruling. Examples of such accommodations include remote work, frequent breaks, schedule changes, part-time work, as well as paid or unpaid leave.