A judge paused in two Southern states a new federal mandate that employers give workers seeking elective abortions time off to obtain and recover from the procedure.
US District Judge David C. Joseph in a Monday order partially halted the new rule being implemented by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, saying the agency had exceeded the authority given to it by Congress in putting forward the regulation. The rule is set to take effect Tuesday, but Joseph has blocked the agency from enforcing it in Louisiana and Mississippi, while the states’ legal challenge to the regulation plays out. Joseph’s order also halts the enforcement of the rule against four Catholic entities that brought their own lawsuit.
The EEOC set forth the regulation under the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, which Congress passed as part of a broader spending package in 2022 and requires that workplaces make certain accommodations for pregnant employees “related to the pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions.”
“If Congress had intended to mandate that employers accommodate elective abortions under the PWFA, 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 (and, indeed, over the past 50 years),” Joseph, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, said in his opinion.
The judge said his preliminary injunction did not apply to “terminations of pregnancy or abortions stemming from the underlying treatment of a medical condition related to pregnancy.”
Monday’s order comes on the heels of a Friday ruling by an Arkansas federal judge that dismissed a challenge to the new abortion rule brought by Arkansas and 16 other states. The judge in that case, Obama-appointed US District Judge D.P. Marshall Jr., cited last week’s Supreme Court opinion in a major challenge to abortion pill access and said that the states lacked standing to bring the lawsuit.
