Biden Admin Adds Abortion to Pregnant Women’s Workplace Benefits

President Joe Biden meets with guests during Greek Independence Day at the White House, on April 4, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

Women going for abortions may soon be able to make their employers provide additional breaks, time off from work, and telework benefits under a new rule being implemented by the Biden administration.

On April 15, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued its final rule to implement the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) which requires employers to offer “reasonable accommodations” to workers affected by “pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions.”

According to the agency, reasonable accommodations include “additional breaks to drink water, eat, or use the restroom; a stool to sit on while working; time off for health care appointments; temporary reassignment; temporary suspension of certain job duties; telework; or time off to recover from childbirth or a miscarriage, among others.”

In the final regulations, EEOC included abortion in the definition of “pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions.” As such, employees who have undergone abortions can now qualify for “reasonable accommodations” from their employers.

Education and the Workforce Committee chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) slammed the inclusion of abortion into the PWFA.

“Adding this controversial provision into the PWFA is wrong. Period. Abortion is not a medical condition related to pregnancy; it is the opposite. Leave it to the Biden administration to think terminating a pregnancy and ending the life of an unborn child addresses the needs of pregnant workers,” she said in an April 15 statement.

The Republican pointed out that the rule goes “well beyond” the authority vested in the EEOC. The PWFA was intended to make sure that employers offer reasonable accommodations to pregnant workers, she pointed out. “The PWFA does not apply to abortions. The term ‘abortion’ is not once mentioned in the law. Instead of following congressional intent, the Biden administration is using the regulatory process to advance radical policy goals. This isn’t surprising given the administration’s predilection for abusing the Constitution.”

EEOC regulations are so “overly broad and unreasonable” that it would create chaos and confusion among employers and employees.

Businesses already struggling under “Bidenomics” could now be forced to provide “years of federally mandated leave under this rule,” which Ms. Foxx says is “nonsensical.”

“Bottom line, this is a classic example of government bureaucrats royally mucking it up.”

The PWFA was signed into law by President Biden on Dec. 29, 2022. It came into effect on June 27 last year. With the EEOC issuing its final regulation to implement the law, the rules are set to go into effect 60 days from April 19, 2024.

In addition to requiring employers to offer “reasonable accommodations,” businesses are barred from denying a job to an employee or applicant if the person requires such “reasonable accommodations.” Employers are prohibited from punishing or retaliating against an employee who seeks such benefits.

In addition, an employer “is not required to seek supporting documentation when an employee asks for a reasonable accommodation.” Instead, employers can only seek such documentation “when it is reasonable under the circumstances.”

Inserting Abortion Into Law

The EEOC claims that the PWFA received “broad bipartisan support in both chambers of Congress,” citing the passage of the bill in the House by a vote of 315 to 101 and in the Senate by 73-24.

However, Senator Bill Cassidy (R-La.) pointed out in August last year that the legislation “originally passed with overwhelmingly bipartisan support with the intent that abortion would not be included,” according to a press release from the lawmaker.

Senator Cassidy was the lead Republican cosponsor of PWFA. “The decision to disregard the legislative process to inject a political abortion agenda is illegal and deeply concerning,” he said.

The EEOC stated it received around 54,000 comments asking the commission to not include abortion in its definition of “pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions.” The agency received 40,000 comments supporting the inclusion of abortion.

The commission eventually agreed with those supporting the inclusion, noting that the PWFA does not define the phrase “pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions.”

However, for almost 45 years, EEOC has interpreted “pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions” present in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to mean “the decision to have—or not to have—an abortion and to prohibit discrimination in employment practices because an employee had or did not have an abortion,” it said.

As such, EEOC decided to include the term abortion in “pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions.”

“Using the same definition also provides clarity and consistency for courts and harmonizes the two statutory schemes. Title VII and the PWFA cover the same employers and employees. Having two definitions of the same term would cause confusion for courts and potentially require them to reach conflicting decisions,” the commission stated.

Alliance Defending Freedom, which submitted comments in October asking the EEOC not to include abortions in the law, slammed the final ruling, pointing out that the regulations would also apply to people who hold religious beliefs.

“This rule is just the latest example of the Biden administration abusing its power to advance abortion. The new rule seeks to punish the speech of pro-life employers and restrict their hiring practices,” said ADF senior counsel Julie Marie Blake.

“The Biden administration and the EEOC don’t have the legal authority to smuggle this illegitimate rule into a law that was created to protect and support women and that had nothing to do with abortion.”