Pregnancy-related discrimination is one Biden-era priority the EEOC hasn’t pivoted from

Over the past year, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has pivoted away from many issues that were top priorities for previous administrations, such as DEI and workplace harassment.

The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) is one rare Biden-era policy that remains an enforcement priority for the Trump administration. The EEOC is taking a narrower view of the law, however, under Chair Andrea Lucas’s leadership.

Where the PWFA stands in 2026. The PWFA passed Congress with bipartisan support in 2022 and was signed into law by President Joe Biden that December.

The law requires employers with 15 or more workers to provide reasonable accommodations tied to “pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions.” Such accommodations may include allowing employees to take additional restroom breaks, keep drinking water nearby, or make physical modifications to their jobs.

When the EEOC issued a final rule for implementing the PWFA in April 2024, it took a broad view of “pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions,” stating that abortions fall under this category. Lucas, who was then an EEOC commissioner, voted against the final rule, and has since said she plans to “reconsider portions” of it as EEOC chair.

In May 2025 a federal judge in Louisiana struck down the portion of the rule that requires employers to consider accommodation requests for elective abortions. This shouldn’t dramatically change how employers comply with the law, however, Christine Bestor Townsend, a shareholder with law firm Ogletree Deakins, told HR Brew.

“The heart of the PWFA remains, and that’s really focused on pregnancy discrimination itself, in terms of failure to accommodate limitations due to pregnancy and childbirth,” Bestor Townsend said.

The decision to have, or not have, an abortion is protected under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, a 1978 amendment to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, she noted. This means it’s illegal to fire someone for making a decision about abortion, though exemptions may apply to religious organizations, she added.

While the abortion provision of the PWFA rule has received a lot of pushback from conservative groups and religious organizations, questions surrounding accommodations for this type of care don’t often arise in Bestor Townsend’s conversations with employer clients, she said.

“Elective abortion just doesn’t come up that much, if ever,” she observed.

How the EEOC is enforcing the PWFA. The EEOC received thousands of charges alleging discrimination under the PWFA in fiscal year 2024, the most recent year for which data is available. During that year, the EEOC filed five PWFA lawsuits.

Despite Chair Lucas’s opposition to parts of the PWFA rule, the agency has continued to pursue cases against employers accused of violating the law.

The EEOC sued a number of companies for allegedly denying reasonable accommodations to pregnant workers in 2025. One recent lawsuit alleges US Steel put a mining equipment operator on temporary leave, rather than allow her to do other work that didn’t require “physically jarring machinery” while she was pregnant. The claim alleges US Steel later moved the worker from an office job to her normal role. Another case brought by the EEOC’s Miami district claimed a behavioral health provider fired an employee on the day she requested a PWFA accommodation; the organization will pay the worker $35,000 as part of a conciliation agreement.

“Where employers have gotten into trouble under the law…is where they really haven’t engaged in the interactive process at all or have refused to provide any accommodations to their employees,” said Daniel A. Schwartz, a partner in employment law at Shipman & Goodwin LLP.

Although Lucas has indicated she intends to revisit the PWFA rule, Schwartz said he wasn’t sure there would be a “wholesale retreat” from the original policy. “Employers ought to be considering a watch and wait situation before just wholesale revising their practices,” he continued, noting that the law itself will not change.

Even if the PWFA rule is narrowed, Schwartz said employers will still have to consider state-level compliance, noting that many states have “robust obligations” in place when it comes to pregnancy. Thirty-one states and Washington, DC had laws on the books requiring employers to provide reasonable accommodations to pregnant workers as of 2022, prior to the PWFA’s enactment.