Seventeen states are suing the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) for unconstitutional overreach after its recent mandate that all employers must offer accommodations for women who get abortions under the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA).
Passed last June, the PWFA stipulates that employers must offer workplace accommodations to pregnant women, including assistance such as time off for medical appointments and recovery from childbirth, as well as accommodations related to seating, breaks for food, water and restroom needs, breastfeeding, and miscarriage. However, last week, the EEOC issued a rule clarification stipulating that abortion will be included as a covered “medical condition” within the act.
The coalition of signee states is being led jointly by Tennessee and Arkansas, and also includes Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, and West Virginia.
READ: Finalized EEOC guidelines require employers to provide abortion accommodations
Their lawsuit contends that the EEOC “hijacked” a pro-family bill meant to offer protections for pregnancies by making it also applicable to abortions, which, it says, “Congress did not authorize.” This, the signees say, “unconstitutionally impairs their interests in protecting their messaging with respect to the primacy of protecting fetal life and the damages caused by 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 in a statement. “I’m proud to lead the coalition fighting to protect the rule of law against this unconstitutional federal overreach.”
“An unelected body like the EEOC Commission does not have the authority to rewrite laws passed by Congress,” Alabama Attorney General Marshall also said in a statement. “Congress sought to ensure accommodations on the job to promote the health of pregnant women and their babies. Biden’s EEOC has illegally transformed that bipartisan law into a mandate that employers facilitate abortions. Biden is again violating the law to promote his radical agenda, and we will again stop him.”
