{"id":233178,"date":"2020-10-31T15:10:33","date_gmt":"2020-10-31T20:10:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=233178"},"modified":"2020-10-30T15:54:32","modified_gmt":"2020-10-30T20:54:32","slug":"pregnant-workers-fairness-act-pro-life-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pregnant-workers-fairness-act-pro-life-concerns\/","title":{"rendered":"Pregnant Workers Fairness Act passes House but pro-life concerns linger"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act<\/a> (<\/a>HR 2694) sponsored by Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.). Originally introduced in 2012, the bill was\u00a0brought to a successful 329-73 vote in the House on September 17, 2020.<\/p>\n

The Act was created “[t]o eliminate discrimination and promote women\u2019s health and economic security by ensuring reasonable workplace accommodations for workers whose ability to perform the functions of a job are limited by pregnancy, childbirth, or a related medical condition.” The bill, explained Rep. Nadler, would require employers “to provide reasonable accommodations to pregnant workers so long as the accommodation does not impose an undue hardship on the employer.” He said it will keep “women and children healthier and safer.”<\/p>\n

However, concern has been raised regarding the purposeful lack of an exemption for religious organizations.<\/p>\n

In a statement<\/a> regarding the bill, Rep.\u00a0Virginia Foxx<\/a>\u00a0(R-N.C.) noted:<\/p>\n

While well-intentioned, this legislation\u00a0unfortunately\u00a0does not include a long-standing provision from the\u00a0Civil Rights Act\u00a0which protects religious organizations from being forced to make employment decisions that conflict with their faith.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

To address this omission, Republicans offered an amendment to include this narrow but long-standing provision when the bill was considered by the Committee.<\/em><\/p>\n

The\u00a0Civil Rights Act\u00a0protection, which already exists under current law, ensures religious organizations are not forced to make employment decisions that conflict with their faith.<\/em><\/p>\n

Foxx summarized several amendments she and other colleagues proposed that were successfully added to the language of the bill but an amendment for religious exemption was voted down. Though Foxx did not specify examples of cases in which religious exemptions may be important, making accommodations to ensure a healthy pregnancy for employees could open the door for employers to be forced to accommodate for abortions for so-called health reasons such as a fetal diagnosis or a concern for the mother’s health. However,\u00a0abortion \u2014 the direct and intentional killing of a child before birth \u2014 is never medically necessary<\/a>.<\/p>\n

READ:\u00a0Mom of Lillian, who has spina bifida, says she \u2018was offered an abortion at every visit\u2019<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

“The purpose of America\u2019s nondiscrimination laws, and the agencies enforcing them, is to give all Americans equal opportunities to succeed,” Foxx explained. “That being said, overzealous government intervention often causes more harm than good. In the case of H.R. 2694, by failing to include a long-standing\u00a0Civil Rights Act<\/em>\u00a0provision, we are doing just that. As it is currently written, H.R. 2694 will create legal risk for religious organizations in their religiously based employment decisions.”<\/p>\n

In addition to potentially accommodating abortions, the Act could lead to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission creating rules requiring employers to cover abortion, contraception, and sterilization in employer-sponsored health plans. Having a religious exemption in the Civil Rights Act but not in the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act could also cause confusion regarding what accommodations employers are or are not required to make.<\/p>\n

The Act has moved to the Senate, where it has been assigned to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike\u201d Live Action News on Facebook<\/a>\u00a0for more pro-life news and commentary!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (HR 2694) sponsored by Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.). Originally introduced in 2012, the bill was\u00a0brought to a successful 329-73 vote in the House on September 17, 2020. The Act was created “[t]o eliminate discrimination and promote women\u2019s health and economic security by ensuring […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":635,"featured_media":192456,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[3473,11],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nPregnant Workers Fairness Act passes House but pro-life concerns linger<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act has passed the House while concerns have arisen over a lack of an exemption for religious organizations.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pregnant-workers-fairness-act-pro-life-concerns\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pregnant Workers Fairness Act passes House but pro-life concerns linger\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act has passed the House while concerns have arisen over a lack of an exemption for religious organizations.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pregnant-workers-fairness-act-pro-life-concerns\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-10-31T20:10:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-10-30T20:54:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/pregnant-pregnancy-career-work-job-education.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"650\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Anne Marie Williams, RN, BSN\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Anne Marie Williams, RN, BSN\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pregnant-workers-fairness-act-pro-life-concerns\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pregnant-workers-fairness-act-pro-life-concerns\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Anne Marie Williams, RN, BSN\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/48e3f680e24f898411f4ea650018e01b\"},\"headline\":\"Pregnant Workers Fairness Act passes House but pro-life concerns linger\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-10-31T20:10:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-10-30T20:54:32+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pregnant-workers-fairness-act-pro-life-concerns\/\"},\"wordCount\":523,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Newsbreak\",\"Politics\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pregnant-workers-fairness-act-pro-life-concerns\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pregnant-workers-fairness-act-pro-life-concerns\/\",\"name\":\"Pregnant Workers Fairness Act passes House but pro-life concerns linger\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2020-10-31T20:10:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-10-30T20:54:32+00:00\",\"description\":\"The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act has passed the House while concerns have arisen over a lack of an exemption for religious organizations.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pregnant-workers-fairness-act-pro-life-concerns\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pregnant-workers-fairness-act-pro-life-concerns\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pregnant-workers-fairness-act-pro-life-concerns\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Pregnant Workers Fairness Act passes House but pro-life concerns linger\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Live Action News\",\"description\":\"Covering Human Rights, Abortion, & Pro-Life Issues\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Live Action\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png\",\"width\":701,\"height\":710,\"caption\":\"Live Action\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/liveaction\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/liveactionorg\/\",\"https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/LiveActionFilms\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/LiveActionFilms\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/48e3f680e24f898411f4ea650018e01b\",\"name\":\"Anne Marie Williams, RN, BSN\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/27753e50a006dd85ec60e2a77e6c6a52?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/27753e50a006dd85ec60e2a77e6c6a52?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Anne Marie Williams, RN, BSN\"},\"description\":\"Anne Marie Williams is a mom of five with 10 years of nursing experience, primarily in the ICU setting. Her writing advocates for an approach to women's health that respects and supports the female body and fertility, and educates on the harms of hormonal birth control. She hosts a postpartum podcast to help other moms experience postpartum as a time of grit, growth, and grace.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/author\/anne-marie-williams\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Pregnant Workers Fairness Act passes House but pro-life concerns linger","description":"The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act has passed the House while concerns have arisen over a lack of an exemption for religious organizations.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pregnant-workers-fairness-act-pro-life-concerns\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Pregnant Workers Fairness Act passes House but pro-life concerns linger","og_description":"The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act has passed the House while concerns have arisen over a lack of an exemption for religious organizations.","og_url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pregnant-workers-fairness-act-pro-life-concerns\/","og_site_name":"Live Action News","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction","article_published_time":"2020-10-31T20:10:33+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-10-30T20:54:32+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":650,"url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/pregnant-pregnancy-career-work-job-education.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Anne Marie Williams, RN, BSN","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@liveaction","twitter_site":"@liveaction","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Anne Marie Williams, RN, BSN","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pregnant-workers-fairness-act-pro-life-concerns\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pregnant-workers-fairness-act-pro-life-concerns\/"},"author":{"name":"Anne Marie Williams, RN, BSN","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/48e3f680e24f898411f4ea650018e01b"},"headline":"Pregnant Workers Fairness Act passes House but pro-life concerns linger","datePublished":"2020-10-31T20:10:33+00:00","dateModified":"2020-10-30T20:54:32+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pregnant-workers-fairness-act-pro-life-concerns\/"},"wordCount":523,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Newsbreak","Politics"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pregnant-workers-fairness-act-pro-life-concerns\/","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pregnant-workers-fairness-act-pro-life-concerns\/","name":"Pregnant Workers Fairness Act passes House but pro-life concerns linger","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2020-10-31T20:10:33+00:00","dateModified":"2020-10-30T20:54:32+00:00","description":"The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act has passed the House while concerns have arisen over a lack of an exemption for religious organizations.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pregnant-workers-fairness-act-pro-life-concerns\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pregnant-workers-fairness-act-pro-life-concerns\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pregnant-workers-fairness-act-pro-life-concerns\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Pregnant Workers Fairness Act passes House but pro-life concerns linger"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/","name":"Live Action News","description":"Covering Human Rights, Abortion, & Pro-Life Issues","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization","name":"Live Action","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png","width":701,"height":710,"caption":"Live Action"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction","https:\/\/twitter.com\/liveaction","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/liveactionorg\/","https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/LiveActionFilms\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/LiveActionFilms"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/48e3f680e24f898411f4ea650018e01b","name":"Anne Marie Williams, RN, BSN","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/27753e50a006dd85ec60e2a77e6c6a52?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/27753e50a006dd85ec60e2a77e6c6a52?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Anne Marie Williams, RN, BSN"},"description":"Anne Marie Williams is a mom of five with 10 years of nursing experience, primarily in the ICU setting. Her writing advocates for an approach to women's health that respects and supports the female body and fertility, and educates on the harms of hormonal birth control. She hosts a postpartum podcast to help other moms experience postpartum as a time of grit, growth, and grace.","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/author\/anne-marie-williams\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233178"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/635"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233178"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":233909,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233178\/revisions\/233909"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/192456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}