American employers no longer have to give workers time off for abortions, according to a new decision from a Trump-appointed federal judge.
U.S. District Judge David Joseph of the Western District of Louisiana ruled Wednesday that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission had wrongly applied its authority when including abortion in pregnancy-related conditions covered by the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act passed in 2022, according to a report from CBS News.
Joseph wrote that Congress “would have spoken clearly” if they had intended for abortion to be covered “when enacting the statute, particularly given the enormous social, religious, and political importance of the abortion issue in our nation at this time.”
The case against the EEOC arose from the attorneys general of Louisiana and Mississippi, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, two Roman Catholic dioceses, and Catholic University.
The two lawsuits had been consolidated into one case.
The Biden administration’s EEOC indeed wrote a rule decreeing that the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act was read to cover “termination of pregnancy, including via miscarriage, stillbirth, or abortion,” according to a report from HR Dive.
Lawsuits quickly arose from Christian and conservative groups against the regulation.
President Donald Trump has presided over a rollback of federal support for abortion.
His administration started enforcing the Hyde Amendment, which bans the use of taxpayer dollars to fund elective abortion, and reinstated the Mexico City Policy, which prohibits funding of abortion overseas, according to a fact sheet from the White House.
The decision on the EEOC rule about abortion came days after U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of the Northern District of Texas struck down another EEOC rule concerning transgenderism.
Kacsmaryk ruled that the EEOC had likewise exceeded its authority when issuing guidance to employers saying that using the wrong pronouns for a self-proclaimed transgender worker is harassment, according to a report from the Associated Press.
The rule had also counted refusing them access to bathrooms opposite to their true sex as harassment.
Kacsmaryk, also a Trump appointee, wrote that the rule created “mandatory standards” from which “legal consequences will necessarily flow if an employer fails to comply.”
“Title VII does not require employers or courts to blind themselves to the biological differences between men and women,” the judge wrote.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and the Heritage Foundation had brought the challenge against the rule in August.
Kevin Roberts, the president of the Heritage Foundation, said in a statement that “the Biden EEOC tried to compel businesses — and the American people — to deny basic biological truth.”
“Today, thanks to the great state of Texas and the work of my Heritage colleagues, a federal judge said: not so fast,” he added.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
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