Labor & Employment Law Daily Wrap Up, EEOC NEWS—Agency helps obtain permanent injunction prohibiting it from enforcing PWFA’s abortion accommodations against employer, (Nov 20, 2025)

By Brandi O. Brown, J.D.

It also stipulated to recognizing The Stanley M. Herzog Foundation as a religious organization.

Responding to a joint motion by an employer and the EEOC, which is the defendant and also a federal agency charged with enforcing the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, 89 Fed. Reg. 29,096 (Apr. 19, 2024), a federal district court in Missouri granted their request that it convert a preliminary injunction it granted in March into a permanent injunction with modification and (2) enter a dismissal without prejudice as to any claims in the complaint regarding Title VII or not otherwise addressed by the permanent injunction.

Permanent injunction. The now-permanent injunction’s terms include that:

“The EEOC and its agents are enjoined from interpreting or enforcing the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act and any implementing regulations, including the Final Rule, against The Stanley M. Herzog Foundation (“Herzog”) in a manner that would require it to accommodate abortions that are contrary to its sincere religious beliefs or that would require it to engage in or refrain from speech relating to abortion accommodations contrary to its sincere religious beliefs (the “Covered Acts”). Specifically, the EEOC and its agents are enjoined from initiating or pursuing any investigation or litigation into the Covered Acts.

Nothing in this Order shall prevent the EEOC or its agents from accepting a charge against Herzog, serving notice of charges to Herzog, issuing a letter to employees saying Herzog is covered under this injunction and an investigation is precluded, and/or issuing a notice of right to sue.”

The EEOC also stipulated that it recognizes the Foundation as a religious organization.

Lawsuit and preliminary injunction. The order stems from a suit brought by the Stanley M. Herzog Foundation against the EEOC, and now dismissed without prejudice per the order, which challenged implementation of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, 89 Fed. Reg. 29,096 (Apr. 19, 2024), under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the Free Exercise Clause of the U.S. Constitution, and the Administrative Procedure Act. Specifically, the Foundation argued that the rule impermissibly required employers to accommodate employees in violation of their sincere religious beliefs by requiring employers to accommodate employees who have obtained abortions.

In March, the court entered a preliminary injunction order finding that the Foundation faced a threat of irreparable harm and that it was likely to succeed on the merits of its Religious Freedom Restoration Act claim. It found then that, despite the EEOC’s current lack of a quorum of commissioners, a credible threat of enforcement remained and the Foundation had, among other things, established an injury-in-fact on this basis (The Stanley M. Herzog Foundation v. EEOC, No. 4:24-cv-00651-RK (W.D. Mo. Mar. 18, 2025)). Now that preliminary order has become permanent.

The case is No. 4:24-cv-00651-RK.

News: AgencyNews Discrimination PregnancyDiscrimination ReligiousDiscrimination LitigationNewsTrends