04-24-2025
A North Dakota federal district court has permanently blocked the EEOC from enforcing its regulation requiring employers to accommodate employees who have abortions or undergo certain fertility treatments.
The Catholic Benefits Association and the Bismarck Diocese sued the EEOC over its regulations regarding reproductive protections for employees. The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) went into effect in 2023, and the EEOC issued guidance in 2024. The PWFA required employers to provide reasonable accommodation for a worker’s pregnancy or childbirth-related needs. The association and diocese sued for violation of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the Administrative Procedure Act, the First Amendment, and Title VII. The Catholic groups argued that accommodating employees’ abortions and “immoral fertility treatments,” forcing them “to use false pronouns when requested by transitioning employees,” directing them to avoid “expressing Catholic teaching regarding sexual issues,” and requiring them to “give employees of one sex access to private spaces reserved to those of the other sex” violated their faith.
The judge concluded that the association and diocese established that the PWFA violated their constitutional right to religious freedom. He expressed, “it is a precarious time for people of religious faith in America,” and that an indication of this “dire assessment” was the “repeated and illegal unconstitutional administrative actions against one of the founding principles of our country, the free exercise of religion.” The EEOC’s acting chair has stated that she disagreed with the agency’s previous interpretation of PWFA’s guidance. She cannot rescind it without an agency quorum.