Patricia Lopez: Republicans are trying a new way to control women's bodies

Republican-led states keep finding ways to challenge the authority of the federal government on anything that doesn’t line up with their conservative worldview.

This time the target is a new law that requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations to pregnant employees.

That law, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, was a decade in the making, with the modest goal of ensuring that pregnant employees are given reasonable accommodations to deal with things such as morning sickness, doctor-prescribed bedrest, or weight-carrying limits for jobs with physical requirements.

In creating the rules that define the law, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission decided — quite logically — that abortion qualifies as such a condition. In practice, that means an employer would be required to allow an employee time off to obtain an abortion.

That set off a firestorm among Republican attorneys general in 17 states, who filed a lawsuit to block the rule, incensed at the idea that an employer would have to accommodate leave for a procedure they might personally oppose.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Arkansas, claims that the EEOC rule, which takes effect in mid-June, is illegal and goes beyond the intended scope of the 2022 law — which passed with broad bipartisan support.

Never mind that these same attorneys general preside over some of the most draconian and restrictive abortion laws in the country, forcing women to travel out of state for needed reproductive care.

Never mind that an employer has no business passing judgment on how an employee decides to deal with a medical issue. There are all kinds of reasons a woman might choose to, or even need to, terminate a pregnancy — not even one of which should she have to disclose to her boss.

A conservative majority on the US Supreme Court already gave states the ability to pass abortion restrictions not seen — in the case of Arizona since the late 1800s. But that’s not enough for these AGs. They want to block any employer in any state from having to comply with these basicprotections, even states that have chosen to protect reproductive rights.

Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin, who together with Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti is leading the coalition that filed the suit, said in a statement that the rule is “yet another attempt by the Biden administration to force through administrative fiat what it cannot get passed through Congress. Under this radical interpretation of the PWFA, business owners will face federal lawsuits if they don't accommodate employees’ abortions, even if those abortions are illegal under state law,” Griffin said.

That’s an artful characterization, since one state’s laws regarding abortion should have little bearing on someone who seeks an abortion in a state where the procedure is legal. And yes, under the new law, an employer might indeed face a lawsuit if a reasonable accommodation is denied. That’s precisely the point, and if anything, demonstrates the need for such workplace protections.

If an employer is allowed to deny an accommodation because they oppose abortion, what else might they deny based on their personal beliefs? Time off to recover from a miscarriage? Fertility treatments that might result in extra embryos? Exactly how much control must an employer have over workers?

It’s worth remembering that not too long ago, women in this country could be fired just for getting pregnant. That’s how the 1978 federal Pregnancy Discrimination Act came into being. That law, however, left lots of loopholes for employers to discriminate against pregnant employees.

Now women must contend with being penalized at work because they choose not to be pregnant.

To be clear, the EEOC isn’t requiring employers to provide paid time off — just time off. The agency is protecting the right of pregnant workers to seek their own care, regardless of their bosses’ political or religious beliefs. And the need is obvious. According to the EEOC, about a third of the more than 2,000 pregnancy discrimination complaints filed in 2023 stemmed from an employer declining to provide reasonable accommodations.

Federal laws and rules exist in part to ensure that Americans have certain base freedoms no matter what state they live in. We once fought a war over that principle.

These Republican-led states are loath to recognize federal authority on any issue that runs afoul of their conservative crusade. Their goal is to impose their will on not only their own states, but beyond their borders. In addition to Arkansas and Tennessee, attorneys general in the coalition include those from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah and West Virginia.

These attorneys general are trying to impose their social mores on the rest of us under the guise of protecting states’ rights and employers. For all our sakes we should hope they lose.

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This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Patricia Lopez is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering politics and policy. She is a former member of the editorial board at the Minneapolis Star Tribune, where she also worked as a senior political editor and reporter.