Abortion fight threatens to spoil bipartisan pregnant worker protections

Key Facts

| Francis Chung/POLITICO Republicans and social conservatives are fuming over the inclusion of abortion language in proposed rules to protect pregnant workers, threatening to mar a law that passed with bipartisan support.
“These regulations completely disregard legislative intent and attempt to rewrite the law by regulation,” Cassidy, who helped lead the fight for the legislation with Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.), said in a statement.
The EEOC attempted to head off concerns that it is placing a mandate on employers by stating in its proposal that nothing in the law “requires or forbids an employer to pay for health insurance benefits for an abortion.”
Last year, while supporters were racing to shore up Republican support, Casey — who previously considered himself a “pro-life Democrat” though in recent years has moved closer to his party on abortion rights and distanced himself from the term — overtly stated that abortion rules were outside the scope of the legislation.