Tennessee, the lead plaintiff in the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, was joined by a coalition of attorneys general from 16 other states on Thursday to file suit over a new rule mandating that most employers offer "reasonable accommodations" to workers related to pregnancy or childbirth, including providing time off for an abortion.

"Congress passed the bipartisan Pregnant Workers Fairness Act to protect mothers-to-be and promote healthy pregnancies, and the EEOC's attempt to rewrite that law into an abortion mandate is illegal," Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said. "Yet in a new rule, unelected commissioners at the EEOC seek to hijack these new protections for pregnancies by requiring employers to accommodate elective abortions –something the act clearly did not authorize. The EEOC's rule constitutes an unconstitutional federal overreach that infringes on existing state laws and exceeds the scope of the agency's authority."