Court Cancels PWFA Abortion Accommodations

The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) no longer requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations to employees for “purely elective” abortions that are not necessary to treat a medical condition related to pregnancy.

This comes after a federal district court recently vacated 2024 PWFA regulations to the extent that they include abortion as a “related medical condition” of pregnancy and childbirth.

The PWFA requires covered employers to reasonably accommodate employees’ known limitations that result from pregnancy, childbirth and related medical conditions, unless an accommodation would impose an undue hardship on the employer.

The law took effect in June 2023. About a year later, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued implementing regulations that defined pregnancy, childbirth or related medical condition broadly, encompassing current pregnancy, past pregnancy, potential or intended pregnancy (including infertility, fertility treatment and contraception), labor, childbirth, termination of pregnancy (including miscarriage, stillbirth and abortion), lactation and many associated health conditions.

State attorneys general for Mississippi and Louisiana and organizations affiliated with the Catholic Church sued the EEOC, arguing there was no statutory basis to include abortion in the PWFA’s coverage. On May 21, the US District Court for the Western District of Louisiana sided with the plaintiffs, saying Congress would have included references to abortion in the PWFA statute if it had intended for abortion to be covered under the law.

The court noted, however, that terminations of pregnancy or abortions stemming from the underlying treatment of a medical condition related to pregnancy are not affected by its order.