Catholic businesses may not be forced to subsidize abortions or fertility treatments, ruled federal Judge Daniel Traynor, a Donald Trump appointee to the District Court of North Dakota, on Tuesday.
Traynor granted 9,000 Catholic businesses a permanent injunction against an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission rule requiring employers to provide abortion-related leave and other practices contrary to these businesses’ religious beliefs.
In 2023, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission under President Joe Biden issued new regulations effectively rewriting the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act to include abortion. The actual language of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act requires protections for “pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions.” The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission rule dramatically expanded this language to include “current…