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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."
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Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah and West Virginia joined Tennessee in the lawsuit.
The final rule, which was approved earlier this month, clarifies the provisions of the act, which became law last June. The measures apply to employers with at least 15 workers, unless accommodations would cause "undue hardship" for the employer. The law provides pregnant and postpartum workers a variety of protections, including time off for recovery from childbirth, prenatal or postnatal appointments and postpartum depression. Accommodations related to seating, light duty, breaks for food, water and restroom needs, breastfeeding and miscarriage also are included. Employers are not required to offer paid time off.
The question of including abortion in the act's definition of "pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions" led to thousands of comments to the commission, with about 54,000 of them urging the commission to exclude abortion and about 40,000 comments asking to include it. The agency noted in the rule that the law cannot be used to require a job-based health plan to pay for any procedure, including an abortion. It specified that the act is a workplace anti-discrimination law.
Related: Pregnant Workers Fairness Act: EEOC's final rules include abortion accommodations
"With respect to abortion, the PWFA's requirements are narrow and will likely concern only a request by a qualified employee for leave from work," the commission said in a statement last week.
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Alan Goforth
Alan Goforth is a freelance writer in suburban Kansas City. In addition to freelancing for several publications, he has written a dozen books about sports and other topics.
