Catholic Employers Beat EEOC Bid to Enforce Pregnancy Rule (1)

A federal judge barred the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from enforcing anti-bias and harassment laws and regulations against a group of Catholic employers that would require them to accommodate abortion and infertility treatments.

The US District Court for the District of North Dakota entered judgmentWednesday, a day after Judge Daniel M. Traynor ruled that EEOC’s regulations under the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act and the enforcement guidance on workplace harassment would cause the Catholic Benefits Association and the Bismarck Diocese to violate their “sincerely held religious beliefs without satisfying strict scrutiny under the” Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

The case ...