Lawsuit continues to challenge Biden-era regulation adding abortion to pregnant worker protections

WASHINGTON (OSV News) — A group of Catholic ministries asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit May 18 to block a federal agency from enforcing an abortion provision in regulations meant to add workplace protections for pregnant workers.

In 2024, religious groups filed suit in United States Conference of Catholic Bishops v. EEOC, to challenge final regulations for the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, issued by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, that granted workers protections for time off and other job accommodations for pregnancy-related medical conditions such as miscarriage, stillbirth and lactation. However, those regulations also included abortion, which some of the bill’s supporters, including the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, argued was not Congress’s intent in passing the law.

Becket, a Washington-based religious liberty law firm, filed that lawsuit on behalf of the USCCB, as well as The Catholic University of America and the dioceses of Lake Charles and Lafayette in Louisiana.

Laura Wolk Slavis, counsel at Becket, said in a May 19 statement, “Bureaucrats tried to twist a bipartisan law protecting pregnant women and their unborn babies into a mandate that churches facilitate abortion within their own ministries.”

“If there’s one thing everyone should agree on about abortion, it’s that Uncle Sam can’t make Mother Teresa support it,” she said.

The EEOC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The regulations at the center of the lawsuit govern the implementation of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, bipartisan legislation passed by Congress and signed into law by then-President Joe Biden in December 2022. The law prohibits employment practices that discriminate against making reasonable accommodations for qualified employees due to their pregnancy, childbirth or “related medical conditions.” The law went into effect in June 2023, and final regulations to implement the law, which defined abortion as among those related conditions, were published in April 2024.

A lower court partially limited the provision, but in a new filing on May 17, the Catholic groups argued that the limitation was “little more than lip service” and that the 5th Circuit should take further action.

“While the district court initially enjoined EEOC’s attempt to read that exemption into a nullity,” the filing said, it later “retreated” and “left the Bishops exposed to civil liability and intrusive litigation.”

“The Bishops are facing an unprecedented mandate requiring them to either malform their ministries or violate federal law,” the filing said.

Wolk Slavis added, “In 250 years, our nation has never allowed the State to make the Church support abortion — and now’s not the time to start.”

“Every other court to consider religious objections to this mandate has protected churches, and we hope the Fifth Circuit does too,” she said.

More broadly, three years after the law’s passage, its protections for pregnant workers are still unevenly met by some corporations, The New York Times recently reported.

read more respect life

French bishops decry vote legalizing ‘assisted dying’ as ‘turning point’ in nation’s history

Senators press Blanche on mifepristone lawsuits, Epstein survivors

Women who say they experienced harm from abortion pill push Blanche to settle suit on FDA policy

Planned Parenthood to receive Medicaid funds again as defunding provision expires

Trial begins in California’s lawsuit against pregnancy resource centers’ abortion pill reversal resources

USCCB and pro-life leaders: Abortion pills remain key post-Dobbs challenge

Copyright © 2026 OSV News

 Print