By Daniel Wiessner
(Reuters) – A group of Republican-led U.S. states filed a lawsuit on Thursday to block a federal rule that would give workers who have had abortions the same legal protections as workers who are pregnant or have recently given birth.
The 17 states allege in a complaint filed in Arkansas federal court that the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission rule unveiled last week violates the U.S. Constitution by interfering with states’ ability to regulate and ban abortion .
The commission’s administration implemented a law that Congress passed in 2022 with bipartisan support and the backing of major business groups that would require most employers to accommodate workers who are pregnant or have related medical conditions.
The EEOC said in the rule that these related conditions can include abortion and contraceptive use, along with miscarriage, breastfeeding and others.
The states, led by Arkansas and Tennessee, said in the lawsuit that abortion is not a medical condition that Congress intended the law to cover. They said forcing state workers to allow abortions would violate state laws that prohibit the use of public funds for abortions.
The EEOC deferred comment to the U.S. Department of Justice, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Fourteen U.S. states now ban nearly all abortions, with only limited exceptions, while several others have strict restrictions, including a ban after six weeks of pregnancy, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights.
The states’ lawsuit also includes a new claim that the rule is invalid because the commission’s structure violates the U.S. Constitution. They argue that the US president, who appoints the five members of the EEOC, should be able to remove them at will.
Corporations, conservative groups and Republican state officials have increasingly made similar arguments in cases involving other agencies, but Thursday’s lawsuit appears to be the first to take aim at the structure of the EEOC.
(Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York; Editing by Josie Kao)
