USCCB committee chairman decries new abortion leave-time mandate for employers
April 22, 2024
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CWN Editor's Note: The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has mandated that employers, including religious employers, grant leave time for abortions.
The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act requires employers to offer accommodations such as leave for “pregnancy,” “childbirth,” and “related medical conditions.” In a novel interpretation, the Biden administration has determined that abortion falls under the provisions of the law—even though, as the USCCB noted in earlier comments, senators from both parties said during the legislative debate that the law’s text does not apply to abortion.
“The bipartisan Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, as written, is a pro-life law that protects the security and physical health of pregnant mothers and their preborn children,” said Bishop Kevin Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, the chairman of the US bishops’ Committee for Religious Liberty. “It is indefensible for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to twist the law in a way that violates the consciences of pro-life employers by making them facilitate abortions.”
“No employer should be forced to participate in an employee’s decision to end the life of their child,” he added.
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Posted by: grateful1 -
Apr. 24, 2024 7:32 PM ET USA
What profoundly ignorant lawyers the USCCB has on staff. The "related medical conditions" language in the statute they advised the bishops to support was an obvious giant hole that left the pro-aborts of the Biden admin & its EEOC free to drive a deadly truck through. Neither promises to the contrary before the statute was passed, nor legislative history, mean a thing in the face of such broad statutory language. Even a 1st year law student would've known better.
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Posted by: feedback -
Apr. 22, 2024 7:34 AM ET USA
It was predictable. It is a consequence of declaring pro abortion lawmakers, in particular Biden and Pelosi, by some Catholic bishops as "Catholics in good standing," eligible to receive Holy Communion. If the bishops keep stepping backward, the devil will keep moving forward.
