CNA—A Monday, Sept 23, 2024, ruling from a federal judge in North Dakota shields thousands of Catholic parishes and employers — for now — from new regulations mandating time off for abortions and fertility treatments as part of federal legislation originally designed to help mothers.
At issue were new regulations issued by President Joe Biden’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) this year that reinterpreted the medical conditions covered in the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) to include abortion and, in some situations, fertility treatments such as in vitro fertilization (IVF). 
The PWFA, which took effect in 2023, requires employers to accommodate women for workplace limitations that arise from pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions and enjoyed the support of the U.S. Catholic bishops until the new rules were announced.
A lawsuit against the rules was filed in June in the U.S. District Court for the Western Division of North Dakota by the Diocese of Bismarck and the Catholic Benefits Association, a ministry that says it represents 85 Catholic dioceses and archdioceses, 1,380 Catholic employers, and 7,100 Catholic parishes.
The Sept. 23 preliminary injunction in the case by U.S. District Judge Daniel Traynor enjoins the EEOC from interpreting the new rules against the Bismarck Diocese or CBA members “in a manner that would require them to accommodate abortion or infertility treatments that are contrary to the Catholic faith, speak in favor of the same, or refrain from speaking against the same.”
In addition, the EEOC and its agents cannot force employees of the Bismarck Diocese or CBA members to “speak or communicate in favor of abortion, fertility treatments, or gender transition when such is contrary to the Catholic faith.”
The abortion leave mandate had already been blocked by a different lawsuit filed by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty in May on behalf of the U.S. bishops, The Catholic University of America, and two Catholic 
dioceses. On June 17, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana protected the Catholic ministries in the lawsuit as well as all employees in Louisiana and Mississippi from the mandate while the case proceeds.
Additional protection
However, the North Dakota ruling is the first to include a block on the leave mandate for fertility treatments, according to the National Women’s Law Center. The Catholic Church teaches that the use of IVF is “morally unacceptable” as it uses artificial means to achieve pregnancy outside of sex and it creates excess human embryos that are routinely destroyed or indefinitely frozen.
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