Today marks the second anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision that overturned Roe. v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey and returned the issue of abortion “to the people’s elected representatives.” Since there is nothing in the U.S. Constitution about abortion, the High Court ruled the supreme law of the land does not provide a right to abortion. In fact, the Constitution protects the fundamental right to life, which was enshrined in the Nation’s birth certificate – the Declaration of Independence.
However, in the wake of Dobbs, the Biden administration has desperately tried to impose abortion across America through rules that interpret laws as protecting abortion despite containing no single reference to it. Seeing through the federal government’s desperation, a federal judge recently blocked a new rule from Biden officials attempting to force two states and four Catholic organizations to fund and accommodate elective abortions.
The judge issued a preliminary injunction that prevents the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) for implementing a new Final Rule that interprets the 2022 Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) as requiring employers to facilitate elective abortions against their religious beliefs – a move the Court found “disingenuous” for the law itself never addresses abortion. Despite no mention of abortion in the PWFA, the implementation guidance of the Final Rule mentions it 348 times.
The injunction keeps the Final Rule from taking effect on any employer in the two states that brought the lawsuit – Louisiana and Mississippi. The injunction also applies to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Roman Catholic Dioceses of Lafayette and Lake Charles, and the Catholic University of America, who brought consolidated lawsuits with the two states, until a final judgment is rendered. The Final Rule went into effect everywhere else June 18, 2024.
In 2022, Congress passed the PWFA requiring employers with 15 or more employees to accommodate the “pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions” of a “qualified employee.” The law also granted the EEOC authority to issue a Final Rule under the law that provides examples of “reasonable accommodations” for pregnant employees. The EEOC issued the Final Rule in April 2024 that included elective abortion in the definition of “pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions,” which then required employers accommodate employees choosing to have an abortion.
The EEOC argued Congress “clearly intended” the law to include abortion and that the Final Rule just enforces legislative “policy decisions.” However, U.S. District Judge David Joseph of the Western District of Louisiana flatly rejected that argument as “disingenuous” because the congressional record shows the law’s own bipartisan sponsors stating the law should not be “misconstrued by the EEOC” to “impose abortion-related mandates” or “provide abortions in violation of state law.”
Judge Joseph stated “the legislative history unambiguously confirms that Congress did not intend” to include abortion in the PWFA and the EEOC “clearly exceeded its authority” by inserting an abortion mandate in the Final Rule.
“Since the Supreme Court decision of Roe v. Wade in 1973, abortion has been one of the most important social, religious, and political issues of our time and is a major issue in every federal election,” wrote Judge Joseph. “Not only is the EEOC unable to point to any language in the PWFA empowering it to mandate the accommodation of elective abortions, but there can be little doubt in today’s political environment that any version of the PWFA that included an abortion accommodation requirement would have failed to pass Congress. The Court therefore finds that the EEOC’s arguments fail.”
According to the 32-page ruling, the parties of the lawsuit also argued whether an elective abortion treats a “medical condition” or is just a “procedure” that terminates a child’s life. Judge Joseph noted the Catholic organizations “clearly have the stronger position” by describing an elective abortion as a “procedure.”
“[Abortion] is thus better described as a medical ‘procedure,’ as Plaintiffs suggest. And the EEOC’s arguments to the contrary amount to little more than semantic gymnastics,” wrote Judge Joseph.
The Court also landed two other devastating blows to the Final Rule. The ruling states it forces religious organizations to “choose between two untenable alternatives: either (1) violate Title VII [employment discrimination law] and obey their convictions, or (2) obey Title VII and violate their convictions,” which “constitutes injury” to the Catholic organizations. Secondly, considering the pro-life laws in Louisiana and Mississippi, Judge Joseph noted the EEOC’s overreach of Congress “is destructive of state sovereignty.”
“The people of Louisiana and Mississippi, through their elected representatives, have chosen to enact legislation and promote public policy that is antithetical to the directives of the abortion accommodation mandate,” wrote Judge Joseph. “At its core, this is a textbook case of a federal administrative agency exceeding its statutory authority in a way that both usurps the role of Congress and violates authority vested in the states under the principles of federalism.”
Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “We continue to celebrate the great victory of Roe’s demise, but the fight continues. The Biden administration is addicted to the murder of unborn babies and this recent abortion policy is a desperate attempt to bypass the law and force the killing of innocent life. The structure of American government simply does not allow a federal agency to circumvent Congress to impose its will. This is another lawless act by the Biden administration that will not stand.”
