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