A U.S. district judge this week permanently blocked the federal government from requiring some Catholic employers to accommodate abortions and in vitro fertilization (IVF) for their employees.
North Dakota District Judge Daniel Traynor said in the Tuesday order that the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) would be “permanently enjoined” from forcing the Catholic Benefits Association and the Diocese of Bismarck to abide by the Biden-era federal rule.
The EEOC had originally announced the revision to the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act in April 2024. The rule change expanded the scope of accommodations that employers must make for “pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions” to also include workers’ decisions about “having or choosing not to have an abortion” as well as treatments like IVF, both of which the Catholic Church forbids.
The Catholic benefits group and the Bismarck Diocese had filed suit against the directive last June. Traynor had issued a preliminary injunction against the rule in September.
In his ruling this week Traynor made the block permanent. The EEOC rule, he said, “violates [the] sincerely held religious beliefs” of the Catholic plaintiffs and runs afoul of the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
Dave Uebbing, a spokesman for the Catholic Benefits Association, told CNA on Thursday that the ruling applies to all of the 91 dioceses with which the group does business. The benefits group offers human resources support and guidance for Catholic employers.
Uebbing noted that the order further covers “not only our members but also our future members. If people join in the future, it will cover them.”
The order was further “unprecedented,” Uebbing noted, because it also applies to “people who do business with our members.”
“In particular, that comes into play when dealing with health plans,” he said. “Let’s say you have your health plan, but you have a third-party administrator that runs it — under the ruling, they’re not obliged to follow these federal laws and regulations that are discriminatory toward Catholics.”
The decision comes as a similar lawsuit brought by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) plays out in federal court.
The USCCB filed the lawsuit last May alongside the Catholic University of America (CUA) and several dioceses. The plaintiffs in that suit are represented by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. In June 2024 a district court blocked the government from enforcing the rule against the USCCB while the lawsuit continues.
Ryan Colby, a spokesman for Becket, told CNA on Thursday that the bishops’ lawsuit is “still ongoing and we’re awaiting a final judgment from the court that would provide permanent protection to USCCB, CUA, and the dioceses.”
This week’s court order “is a promising step forward, but more protection is necessary,” he said.
The U.S. bishops said last year that the EEOC rule was “indefensible.”
Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, Bishop Kevin Rhoades said at the time that though the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) was “a pro-life law that protects the security and physical health of pregnant mothers and their preborn children,” the EEOC directive “twist[ed] the law in a way that violates the consciences of pro-life employers by making them facilitate abortions.”
In comments opposing the rule before it was finalized, the bishops argued that abortion “is neither pregnancy nor childbirth.”
“And it is not ‘related’ to pregnancy or childbirth as those terms are used in the PWFA because it intentionally ends pregnancy and prevents childbirth,” they said.
Source: Angelus News
