CHICAGO (AP) — A lawsuit filed by 17 states challenging federal rules that give workers the right to time off and other accommodations for abortions has no standing, a federal judge in Arkansas ruled Friday.
Republican attorneys general from every state, led by Arkansas and Tennessee, sued the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in April, days after the agency published rules for employers and employees to implement the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, a law of 2022 that requires many employers to provide “reasonable accommodations” for pregnant or postpartum employees.
In addition to more routine accommodations in the maternity workplace, such as time off for prenatal appointments, more bathroom breaks or permission to bring snacks, the rules say workers can request time off to have an abortion and recover from pregnancy. procedure.
The lawsuit filed in federal court in Arkansas argued that the regulations go beyond the scope of the 2022 law, which passed with bipartisan support.
Eastern District of Arkansas U.S. District Judge DP Marshall Jr., who was appointed to the court by former President Barack Obama, denied the states’ request for a nationwide preliminary injunction on the federal rules, which are expected to take effect Tuesday steps.
“The states’ fear of overreach of one branch of the federal government cannot be cured by overreach of another branch,” Friday’s ruling said.
Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin said in a statement released by a spokesman that he is “disappointed in the court’s ruling” and is “considering all legal options and remains confident that we will ultimately be successful.”
The other states that have joined the lawsuit are Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah and West Virginia.
The EEOC rules are also being challenged in another federal lawsuit in Louisiana, which is still awaiting a ruling. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, along with other religious groups, filed a separate lawsuit over the abortion provision in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana. That case has been consolidated with a lawsuit filed by the attorneys general of Louisiana and Mississippi, which also asks the judge to delay enforcement of EEOC rules pending the outcome of the case.
The American Civil Liberties Union and more than two dozen worker and women’s advocacy groups, including A Better Balance, a nonprofit that led the decade-long campaign to pass the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, filed amicus briefs in both cases they argued that the EEOC rules should take effect as planned, calling them key to the law’s successful implementation.
“Today’s ruling in Tennessee v. EEOC is a victory for millions of pregnant and postpartum workers across the country because it allows Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) regulations to take effect next week, providing important clarity on how the law works in practice,” says Dina Bakst of A Better Balance.
In their brief, the groups cited dozens of examples of pregnant workers who had contacted advocacy groups or filed lawsuits alleging that employers continued to deny them accommodations in violation of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act.
“The relief sought in this case is completely excessive and would have harmed literally millions of people,” said Gillian Thomas, a senior staff attorney at the ACLU’s Women’s Rights Project, referring to the Arkansas lawsuit. “The law has been in place for a year and employers are breaking it in the most egregious ways, both left and right, and clearly need guidance.”
The EEOC says in its rulemaking that it conforms to decades of legal precedent establishing that laws against pregnancy discrimination include abortion.
Abortion rights defenders have also praised protections under EEOC rules as particularly crucial in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling that struck down the constitutional right to an abortion. Women in states with strict abortion restrictions increasingly have to travel far to obtain the procedure, requiring time off work to do so.
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