Published July 25, 2024
On July 25, 2024, EPPC scholars Rachel N. Morrison and Eric Kniffin filed an amicus brief on behalf of EPPC in the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in support of a coalition of 17 states challenging the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) Rule.
The PWFA provides women workplace accommodation protections for “pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions.” But according to three unelected EEOC Commissioners, the PWFA imposes an abortion-accommodation mandate sub silentio on Plaintiff States and employers across the country. Under this mandate, the States are forced to facilitate their employees’ abortions without limitation—including eugenic abortions, late-term abortions, and abortions unlawful under state law.
Even though the PWFA Rule directly regulates the States, the district court had held that the States did not have standing to challenge the PWFA Rule in court.
EPPC’s brief argued:
The Supreme Court’s direction in Dobbs was clear: the issue of abortion is returned “to the people and their elected representatives.” But, as documented [in the brief], the executive branch, including the EEOC, is ignoring that direction and weaponizing federal law to promote a broad abortion-access agenda. Federal agencies and unelected government officials are issuing regulations, like the PWFA Rule, that directly bind states and interfere with their sovereign interest in protecting fetal life.
Under the district court’s reasoning, these unlawful agency actions would be improperly insulated from legal challenge. This Court should reverse the district court and find that the States have standing.
Rachel N. Morrison is a Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, where she directs EPPC’s HHS Accountability Project. An attorney, her legal and policy work focuses on religious liberty, health care rights of conscience, the right to life, nondiscrimination, and civil rights.
