(OSV News) — In an April 15 ruling, a federal judge in North Dakota issued a permanent injunction against the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, siding with the Catholic Benefits Association in its legal challenge of two regulations included in the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act.
The CBA asserted that in violation of Catholic religious beliefs, the regulations would have forced it and other Catholic employers to accommodate abortion, IVF or pregnancy surrogacy, to eliminate single-sex spaces such as bathrooms and locker rooms, and allow employees to adopt preferred pronouns.
The association, which is based in Colorado, represents close to 90 dioceses and more than 1,400 other entities. With a membership estimated at 9,000, it also comprises hospitals, school systems, religious orders and other groups that offer their employees insurance and benefit programs that adhere to Catholic teaching.
A temporary injunction was issued last September. In that, U.S. District Judge Daniel Traynor ruled that the CBA and the Diocese of Bismarck, North Dakota, were likely to succeed in proving the regulations could force them to violate their beliefs.
“The facts and evidence in this case have not changed since the preliminary injunction was issued,” Traynor said in his April 15 ruling. “EEOC has not met the burden of proving a compelling interest. … The Court adopts its previous reasoning and finds that CBA succeeds on the merits of its claim that the Act violates their rights under RFRA (Religious Freedom Restoration Act).”
Other challenges to parts of PWFA
Other challenges to the law are ahead. On Feb. 20, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit ruled that 17 states had standing to challenge parts of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, which was passed by Congress Dec. 27, 2022, and signed into law by President Joe Biden on Dec. 29, 2022. The bill took effect on June 27, 2023.
Final rules for the PWFA were published on April 15, 2024, by the EEOC “to provide clarity and guidance,” the agency said, “on its implementation, particularly regarding the definition of ‘related medical conditions,’” which included abortion, and the process “for reasonable accommodations.” The final rules were published in the Federal Register April 19 of that year and went into effect June 18, 2024.
The original act, CBA spokesman Dave Uebbing told OSV News, “didn’t include abortion, IVF, surrogacy, or gender transitioning as something that should be accommodated by employers, but the implementing regulations did.”
In the workplace harassment guidelines, the EEOC said “that not using preferred pronouns and) restricting access to single-sex spaces … would potentially constitute discrimination and create a hostile work environment,” Uebbing said April 17.
“The current suit falls into a long line of cases that should be unnecessary in a country that was built on the concept of freedom of religion,” Traynor wrote in his September order, adding that the issues in the case “are ripe for adjudication.”
He also called the regulations a “challenge to religious liberty” and an example of “government action that is clearly anti-religion.”
Distortion of the law
In a statement, Doug Wilson, chief executive officer of the CBA, said he saw the win as “underscoring the power of working as an association and the strength of CBA’s legal team.”
He added, “The fact that we have had to sue the government five times and won every single time clearly illustrates both the strength of our legal strategy and the misguided ideological nature of the efforts to undermine our faith-driven ministries.”
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops had supported the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act as it made its way through Congress because it was “pro-worker, pro-family and pro-life,” according to a 2023 statement from Bishop Michael F. Burbidge of Arlington, Virginia, then chair of the USCCB’s pro-life committee.
But he added, “It is a total distortion to use this law as a means for advancing abortion, and the complete opposite of needed assistance for pregnant mothers.”
The EEOC has 60 days to consider whether to file an appeal. The case is tied to the Affordable Care Act’s Section 1557, a nondiscrimination provision that prohibits discrimination in healthcare based on various protected characteristics, including race, color, national origin, sex, age and disability.
The CBA also has an ongoing suit against the Department of Health and Human Services and the EEOC over the requirement that health plans cover contraception, abortion, sterilization, transgender transition medications and procedures, and related counseling.
Kurt Jensen writes for OSV News from Washington.
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