A federal judge in Louisiana struck down a Biden-era Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) rule that would have required businesses nationwide to accommodate employees seeking abortions. The rule, introduced under the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA), was meant to mandate paid leave and workplace accommodations for abortion-related needs.

But U.S. District Judge David Joseph—appointed by President Donald Trump—ruled Wednesday that the EEOC grossly overstepped its authority. In his decision, Joseph wrote that the agency “exceeded its statutory authority” and “encroached upon the sovereignty” of Louisiana and Mississippi, both of which were plaintiffs in the case.

The ruling is a victory for religious liberty, states’ rights, and unborn children.

The litigation was filed jointly by the states of Louisiana and Mississippi and backed by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. Becket represented several Catholic institutions, including the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Catholic University of America. These groups warned that the Biden rule would have forced them to violate deeply held religious beliefs by supporting or facilitating elective abortions.

Bishop Timothy Broglio, president of the bishops’ conference, said last year that while the original 2022 law had a noble aim—to protect pregnant women in the workplace—the Biden administration’s reinterpretation of it was a direct assault on conscience rights. “The EEOC subverted the law’s noble goal by turning it into an abortion-accommodation mandate,” Broglio warned.

That overreach has now been overturned in court.

Judge Joseph’s order permanently blocks the EEOC from enforcing the abortion-accommodation mandate in Louisiana and Mississippi and for all of the Catholic plaintiffs. His ruling vacates any language in the regulation that suggests employers must provide accommodations—such as time off or schedule changes—for employees to obtain elective abortions.

He also made it clear that the EEOC’s actions undermined the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 2022 Dobbs decision, which returned authority over abortion regulation to the states. “The Final Rule contravenes Dobbs by requiring the Plaintiff States to accommodate the very types of abortions that they have chosen… to proscribe,” the original complaint stated.

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill called the decision “a win for Louisiana and for life.”

Predictably, abortion advocates cried foul. Inimai Chettiar, president of the leftist activist group A Better Balance, blasted the decision as part of “a broader attack on women’s rights.” She accused the court of undermining worker protections, ignoring the fact that the rule was never authorized by Congress in the first place.

But the judge’s ruling is grounded in constitutional principles. The EEOC had no legal basis to impose a nationwide abortion accommodation policy—especially in states that have banned most abortions and in religious institutions that consider abortion to be a moral evil.

The Biden administration tried to rewrite the law after failing to pass its radical abortion agenda through Congress. This ruling makes it clear: if Democrats want to enshrine abortion benefits in federal workplace policy, they’ll need to pass an actual law—not sneak it in through bureaucratic fiat.

For now, red states and faith-based employers can breathe a little easier. This ruling protects not only unborn lives but the constitutional rights of Americans who refuse to be complicit in the culture of death. And it’s just the latest reminder that President Trump’s judicial appointments are still delivering wins for life and liberty.