Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti pursued legal action against the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) on Thursday over its new rule regarding workplace abortion accommodations.
In 2022, President Joe Biden signed the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) into law, which protects pregnant workers and their babies by directing that women receive workplace accommodations for “pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions.”
As a result of Biden’s action, members of the EEOC proposed and have since adopted a new rule that would interpret the PWFA to force covered employers, including the State of Tennessee, to allocate resources to support workers’ decisions to terminate pregnancies.
Congress passed the bipartisan Pregnant Workers Fairness Act to protect mothers-to-be and promote healthy pregnancies.
The EEOC's attempt to rewrite that law into an abortion mandate is illegal
➡️https://t.co/8J5SCeal8N pic.twitter.com/7OOSRlsiot
— TN Attorney General (@AGTennessee) April 25, 2024
Prior to the EEOC adopting the rule, Skrmetti led a coalition of 19 state attorneys general in sending a letter opposing the rule, threatening legal action if the rule was adopted.
Now, alongside Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin, Skrmetti led a group of 17 states in suing the EEOC over its adoption of the rule, arguing it “constitutes an unconstitutional federal overreach that infringes on existing state laws and exceeds the scope of the agency’s authority.”
Skremtti’s office said if the EEOC’s rule stands, Tennessee, the co-plaintiff states, and countless employers will be “forced to allocate resources to support elective abortions or face federal liability—even in states that have lawfully chosen to restrict elective abortions.”
The plaintiffs ask that the court grant its preliminary injunction request to prevent the rule from being implemented or enforced as the lawsuit moves through the court system.
“Congress passed the bipartisan Pregnant Workers Fairness Act to protect mothers-to-be and promote healthy pregnancies, and the EEOC’s attempt to rewrite that law into an abortion mandate is illegal,” Skrmetti said in a statement. “I’m proud to lead the coalition fighting to protect the rule of law against this unconstitutional federal overreach.”
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
