The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission cannot mandate accommodations to employees undergoing elective abortions, a federal judge ruled May 21. The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana ordered the EEOC to remove abortion accommodation requirements from its Pregnant Workers Fairness Act rule.
The judge vacated the parts of the PWFA rule that included abortion in the definition of “pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions” and required accommodations for “purely elective abortions.” He found that the EEOC exceeded its statutory authority by requiring employers to provide abortion accommodations. He reasoned that if Congress had wanted to include an abortion accommodation provision in the PWFA, it would have done so, especially in view of the Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs decision, which overturned the federal right to abortion only six months before the PWFA was enacted.
Employers must still comply with all other PWFA regulations.
Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC), our affiliated nonprofit membership association, can read more here.