A federal appeals court on February 20, 2025, cleared the path for a lawsuit seeking to block Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) protections for pregnant workers. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ruled in the case that seventeen Republican state attorneys general can, in fact, sue to block rules that the EEOC issued under the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA). In so doing, the court rejected the argument that the states did not have standing to sue to block the rules.
The PWFA is a 2023 federal law that requires covered employers to grant accommodations to workers with limitations caused by pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions, unless doing so would cause the employers undue hardship. The EEOC issued rules under the PFWA which provide, in part, that required accommodations for pregnant workers may include abortion-related accommodations. The case before the Eighth Circuit involved a challenge to those rules.
Seventeen Republican state attorneys general filed the case in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas, where they sought to block the EEOC’s rules, arguing that the EEOC exceeded its authority by including abortions in the PWFA’s definition of pregnancy-related conditions. That court dismissed the case, finding that the state attorneys general did not have standing to bring the case, as they were not the object of the EEOC’s regulatory action. The Eighth Circuit reversed that ruling and sent the case back to the lower court for further proceedings.
The Arkansas case is just one of several pending cases filed by Republican state attorneys general and religious groups to challenge the EEOC’s PWFA rules. The EEOC’s rules are expected to continue to be the topic of significant litigation, leaving the future of the rules uncertain.
The Labor and Employment Practice Group at Frantz Ward will continue to monitor this situation closely.
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