Judge: Catholic Employers Can Deny Workers Time Off to Seek Abortions, IVF Treatments

A judge in North Dakota just ruled that the federal government cannot coerce thousands of Catholic employers nationwide to provide time off for abortion and IVF treatments for employees.

Citing the employers’ First Amendment right to freedom of religion, U.S. District Judge Daniel Traynor issued a preliminary injunction against the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) from enforcing recent federal regulations intended to protect pregnant workers.

Now, some 7,000 nationwide Catholic parishes and an additional 1,380 Catholic employers across the United States will no longer have to provide time off for abortion and fertility care – at least until a lawsuit from the Catholic Benefits Association (CBA) and the Catholic Diocese in Bismarck against the EEOC plays out in court.

Healthcare or Heresy?

“Regulatory overreach” is how the Catholic groups describe federal regulations requiring them to provide time off for women’s healthcare issues like obtaining an abortion or IVF treatments.

The CBA and the Catholic Diocese in Bismarck argue that the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act – a 2022 law passed with bipartisan support – constitutes a First Amendment violation by forcing them to accommodate abortions and “immoral” fertility treatments “contrary to their Catholic faith.”

It’s not just abortions and fertility care being challenged, either. The plaintiffs also take issue with harassment regulations designed to protect transgender employees. The Catholic groups argued that being forced to “use false pronouns” and “[giving] employees of one sex access to private spaces reserved to those of the other sex” would be a violation of their religious beliefs. 

Judge Traynor agreed. “It is a precarious time for people of religious faith in America. It has been described as a post-Christian age,” Traynor wrote in his judgment. “One indication of this dire assessment may be the repeated illegal and unconstitutional administrative actions against one of the founding principles of our country, the free exercise of religion.”

“[Forcing] members to choose between expressing sincerely held beliefs and compliance,” Traynor argued, would cause “irreparable” harm.

Free Speech Violation?

Attorneys for the federal government are challenging the injunction, saying that it is “highly speculative” because the scenario being challenged hasn’t even happened yet. No employees have actually sought care and been denied by their Catholic employer under these current conditions.

Nevertheless, the government says that they recognize there are potential faith-related concerns, and say that the EEOC will evaluate any potential objections on a case-by-case basis, and that a blanket exception to all Catholic employers should not be granted.

Pro-choice advocates agree, arguing that this is hardly a burden on Catholic employers, and certainly not a violation of their right to free speech. They point out that the regulations only say that employers must give time off for employees to seek an abortion, they’re not required to approve of it, let alone pay for it. Is giving unpaid time off, they argue, seriously a sincere violation of their Catholic faith? 

For now, though, the injunction stands, and some 8,000+ Catholic employers are currently not required to abide by those regulations in the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. Time will tell if that holds.

What do you think? Do regulations allowing employees time off to seek abortions or fertility care really constitute a religious freedom violation for Catholic employers? Can it cause “irreparable” harm, as the judge put it? Or is this, as pro-choice advocates argue, yet another religious assault on women’s healthcare?