In the U.S. House, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act passed back in 2021 and is pending in the Senate during the current lame-duck session.
Greg Baylor, an attorney at Alliance Defending Freedom, tells AFN the bill appears to be written to help pregnant women but the attorney warns that vague description is deceptive.
According to a LifeSiteNews story, the language in H.R. 1065 requires businesses to “make reasonable accommodations to the known limitations related to the pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions of a qualified employee.”
“The phrase ‘related medical conditions’ has been interpreted in different contexts to include abortion,” Baylor explains. “And so the concern that ADF and many others have about the bill is that it will impose an obligation on employers to accommodate workers who want, for example, to take leave to go have an abortion.”
After the landmark Dobbs abortion ruling in June, many major corporations proudly bragged they were helping female employees abort their unborn child by paying travel expenses to abortion-friendly states. Amazon, the country's second-largest private employer, announced it will up to the $4,000 in travel expenses.
It is feared the pending Pregnant Workers bill makes that financial assistance mandatory if the bill becomes law.
Baylor points out that the bill is patterned on Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which forbids discrimination in employment but contains a strong religious exemption for employers.
“This bill,” he warns, “does not.”
During debate at a House committee, Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) pushed for a religious exemption in the bill. Democrats rejected that effort in a party line vote, Baylor says.
