A federal district judge has granted a preliminary injunction protecting the Catholic Diocese of Bismarck and the Catholic Benefits Association from a federal agency’s pro-abortion and pro-in vitro fertilization (IVF) accommodation mandates.
The injunction also protects the Catholic plaintiffs from the agency’s regulations that would potentially require religious employers to violate their Catholic beliefs about sexuality.
Reuters reported this week that U.S. District Judge Daniel Traynor granted the injunction on September 23, while the lawsuit filed by the Catholic plaintiffs is being considered.
The Catholic Benefits Association and the Diocese filed a complaint in court against the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in July, challenging the EEOC’s pro-abortion and pro-IVF accommodation mandates, which it imposes through the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA).
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In the complaint, the plaintiffs also challenged the EEOC’s interpretation of Title VII out of concern for protecting religious employers’ beliefs on sexuality.
“EEOC’s Harassment Guidance effectively requires Catholic employers to use false pronouns, to avoid speaking the truth regarding human sexuality around certain employees, and to permit opposite-sex employees to intrude into private spaces reserved to those of the other sex,” the complaint says.
A hearing on the case took place last week in the U.S. District Court of Bismarck, according to news outlet KFGO.
According to Reuters, Traynor’s injunction includes, in part, “that the EEOC cannot take action against the association’s members for refusing to use pronouns” that are inconsistent with an employee’s biological sex, or for refusing to allow employees who claim to be “transgender” to use the bathroom that opposite of his or her biological sex.
Following Traynor’s granting of the preliminary injunction, one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys, Martin Nussbaum, expressed gratitude on behalf of the Catholic Benefits Association members.
“Given the profound moral issues the EEOC has created by its mandates, the members of the Catholic Benefits Association are grateful to have their religious rights vindicated by this order,” stated Nussbaum, according to Reuters.
As CatholicVote previously reported, the religious liberty law organization Becket Fund filed a lawsuit on behalf of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in May against the EEOC, also to challenge the pro-abortion mandate in the PWFA.
LifeNews Note: McKenna Snow writes for CatholicVote, where this column originally appeared.
