A federal judge in North Dakota on Monday placed a preliminary injunction on federal regulations that require employers to offer time off for abortion.
The guidelines in question expanded the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) to stipulate that employers have to offer “reasonable accommodations,” including time off, for women to get abortions. This provision was challenged by the Catholic Benefits Association and the Diocese of Bismarck on the basis that it violated their religious freedom. The Catholic Benefits Association represents 87 Catholic dioceses in the United States, along with 1,400 other Catholic organizations.
“The EEOC’s rulemaking has betrayed the firm understanding that the PWFA exists to protect pregnant women, postpartum mothers, and their babies — not force religious employers to provide material support for and engage in speech supportive of abortions or immoral fertility treatments,” the plaintiffs said in their complaint.
U.S. District Judge Daniel Traynor granted the preliminary injunction, noting that the rule “forces members to choose between expressing sincerely held beliefs and compliance,” and would cause “irreparable” harm. Traynor said the Catholic organizations were likely to succeed in their lawsuit.
“It is a precarious time for people of religious faith in America. It has been described as a post-Christian age,” Traynor wrote. “One indication of this dire assessment may be the repeated illegal and unconstitutional administrative actions against one of the founding principles of our country, the free exercise of religion.”
Traynor also said the Catholic organizations did not have to comply with EEOC harassment regulations “in a manner that would require them to speak or communicate in favor of abortion, fertility treatments, or gender transition when such is contrary to the Catholic faith.”
Martin Nussbaum, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, praised the injunction. “Given the profound moral issues the EEOC has created by its mandates, the members of the Catholic Benefits Association are grateful to have their religious rights vindicated by this order,” he said.
