Christian employers secure immunity against federal gender ideology mandate, but not abortion rule

More than two years after a federal court ruled the Biden administration cannot force religious employers and healthcare providers to provide so-called gender-affirming care for employees, the Trump administration is still mopping up its predecessor's legal messes relating to a novel reading of "sex" but not fully giving up the fight.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reached a partial settlement with the Christian Employers Alliance, which sued the feds five days before President Trump's return to office for requiring CEA members to treat employees by their gender identity – using their preferred pronouns and letting employees cross-dress and use opposite-sex facilities.

Approved Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland, the agreement gives Christian employers a powerful reason to join the CEA: both current and future members are immune from commission threats stemming from the gender-identity interpretation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits sex-based workplace discrimination.

CEA crowed that the partial settlement "provides a path for future CEA members to receive its protections, provided they satisfy the settlement’s membership, eligibility, and certification requirements," in addition to protecting employers who were CEA members "at the time of the conduct at issue" when the EEOC came knocking.

"This settlement demonstrates the practical importance of an organization that can defend the freedom of its members to faithfully live out their convictions in the workplace," President Margaret Iuculano said.

CEA sued the Biden administration in 2021 for the gender-transition mandate, winning $210,000 in legal fees two years ago.

The group emphasizes the financial risk of going it alone for Christian employers facing federal mandates: $1-3 million in legal fees "to defend a single federal mandate challenge" and 2-5 years in litigation. "You are already shielded by permanent federal injunctions" as a CEA member: "No lawsuit. No courtroom. No uncertainty."

The agreement doesn't touch another part of the lawsuit, however – CEA's challenge to the Biden era-EEOC's interpretation of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act as requiring its members to accommodate employees' abortions.

The commission did agree to indefinitely pause enforcement of that interpretation in January while preparing replacement regulations for PWFA, another example of the Trump administration's resistance to promptly eradicating its predecessor's abortion policies, which has provoked increasing hostility from pro-life leaders.

Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, historically a major bankroller of Republican candidates, is hammering Attorney General Todd Blanche to accept a consent decree in a legal challenge to the abortion pill mifepristone's mail-order prescribing conditions, which would immediately reinstate in-person dispensing requirements.

The group claims President Trump's party faces a clobbering in the midterms from low turnout if Blanche keeps fighting. The Justice Department has thus far refused, citing the Food and Drug Administration's ongoing safety review of mifepristone, upon completion of which the agency might change the pill's prescribing conditions – but not before the November midterms.

An EEOC spokesperson identified only as "Kim" referred Just the News to DOJ when asked why the commission didn't settle the PWFA claims at the same time, and didn't answer when asked whether it views PWFA as silent on abortion accommodation.

No investigation for refusing preferred pronouns, keeping restrooms sex-based

The commission revoked its gender-identity guidance in January, in line with a federal court ruling last year that found the Biden administration unlawfully redefined "sex" in Title VII to include gender identity and "discriminatory harassment" to include failure to honor preferred pronouns and requiring employees to use restrooms and follow dress codes for their sex.

The partial settlement goes further by affirmatively immunizing CEA members for "covered conduct" in the agreement.

They cannot be investigated for refusing to engage in "speech relating to gender transition, gender identity, or transgender status," or not forcing employees to do the same, or for failing to "affirm or facilitate such statuses, including, but not limited to, failing to use pronouns that are inconsistent with a person’s biological sex."

CEA members are also immune for refusing to make "exceptions to sex-specific dress codes because of gender identity or transgender status," prohibiting "persons" – not just employees – from using "private spaces reserved for the opposite sex," and not modifying "policies and training to reflect compliance with such requirements."

If they receive an EEOC charge of discrimination for conduct in the agreement, CEA members don't have to admit "the allegations in the charge or allegations that arise during investigation of a charge alleging uncovered conduct" in order to invoke immunity as a CEA member. "The certification shall not be construed as an admission" either.

CEA requires members to agree that male and female are "immutable realities defined by biological sex" and so-called gender reassignment is "contrary to Christian Values," the agreement says. They cannot participate in any way in such procedures or counseling without having "exhausted all alternatives" that aren't a worse violation of Christian values.

Former commissioner's lawsuit threatened return of abortion mandate

"Counts II and VII, and Counts III, IV, and V concerning the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, proceedings concerning which are currently stayed, remain pending," Hovland's order says.

CEA's statement Tuesday emphasizes its members are only "temporarily protected" from the EEOC forcing it to accommodate abortions.

A federal judge last year invalidated the Biden administration's interpretation of PWFA, finding EEOC overstepped its authority on a "major question" reserved for Congress, and granted summary judgment to plaintiffs Louisiana, Mississippi and four Catholic organizations after issuing a preliminary injunction a year earlier.

Soon after, CEA intervened as a defendant in former Democratic EEOC Commissioner Jocelyn Samuels' lawsuit against President Trump for firing her before her five-year term ends, defending the president's authority so as to protect itself from Samuels' restoration of the abortion-accommodation mandate should she return to the EEOC.

It celebrated when a federal court dismissed Samuels' lawsuit last month.

"Christian business owners should not have to relitigate the same unlawful mandates when the president directed that they be repealed," CEA said.

"In light of recent court rulings and certain policy changes being considered by Defendants, the parties have agreed to stay proceedings based on the following terms," CEA and EEOC said in a Jan. 8 agreement pertaining to the PWFA claims.

File EEOC and CEA motion to stay abortion claims.pdf

EEOC will not enforce the law "in a manner that would require [CEA members] to accommodate abortion, speak in favor of the same or refrain from speaking against the same," it says. The agreement expires "on the effective date of a new final PWFA regulation, if by that date the revised or rescinded regulation is not enjoined or vacated by a court order."

In July, the commission said it planned to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking on revising PWFA regulations this fall.

"Among other revisions, the EEOC proposes revising language in the regulations regarding the interpretation of the words 'pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions,'" the notice says, pegging the NPRM for November and a comment period that ends in January 2027.

Chair Andrea Lucas is on the record opposing the PWFA regulation adopted by the Democrat-led commission in 2024, when she was in the minority.

She was careful to avoid the word "abortion," instead objecting to the conflation of accommodations for "pregnancy and childbirth" with those for "the female sex, that is, female biology and reproduction," which extends EEOC authority to "virtually every condition, circumstance, or procedure" relating to "the female reproductive system."

As acting chair early in Trump's second term, before the commission had a quorum, Lucas said she cannot "unilaterally rescind or modify" the regulation under the Administrative Procedure Act. She "intends" for EEOC to "reconsider portions of the Final Rule that she believes are unsupported by law" once it gets more commissioners.

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