The EEOC’s latest enforcement rules on abortion and gender identity harassment put the agency in the political spotlight

Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Trump says he'll allow states to monitor pregnancies and prosecute abortions if elected in November, women should now get breast cancer screenings at age 40, and the EEOC takes steps to protect workers and ends up in the political spotlight. Have a wonderful Wednesday.

- Equal protection. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's recent changes to enforcement guidance—the rules that govern how the agency enforces federal anti-discrimination law—can read a bit like a Fox News fever dream. Take this NBC News headline: "EEOC says workplace bias laws cover bathrooms, pronouns, and abortion."

And yet the changes, announced over the last two weeks, will impact workers more than TV pundits. This week's update on harassment is the first major change to the agency's enforcement guidelines on the subject in 25 years.

Two weeks ago, the EEOC determined that the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, in addition to protecting pregnant people, covers workers who need accommodations like time off or flexible scheduling related to abortion, considered a "related medical condition" to pregnancy. Then, this week, the agency announced updated guidance for employers on what is and isn't considered harassment, including sexual harassment and harassment based on gender identity. The guidance consolidated a hodgepodge of five documents issued between 1987 and 1999.

Over the past quarter-century since the EEOC's last guidance on harassment, the mainstream conversation around gender has significantly evolved. Plus, there's heightened awareness of workplace sexual harassment following #MeToo. Decades of court rulings have expanded workers' rights to include being free from harassment, EEOC chair Charlotte Burrows told NBC.

The headline-grabbing changes are the ones that are already hot-button social issues among conservatives; the EEOC said that misgendering workers and denying access to bathrooms consistent with workers' gender identity are both forms of harassment.

Already, the EEOC's Pregnant Workers Fairness Act guidelines have prompted a lawsuit from 17 GOP state attorneys general. It remains to be seen whether any conservative officeholders will similarly go after the agency on its harassment guidance. The changes were approved 3-2 by the commission, with two Republican appointees objecting.

So far, the EEOC has made clear why it introduced these changes. Between 2016 and 2023, more than one-third of all discrimination charges received by the EEOC included an allegation of harassment based on race, sex, disability, or another protected characteristic, the commission said.

Burrows said the purpose of the updates was to make clear to employers what their responsibilities are. "We felt we really needed to lay out the contours of the law and where it stands,” she said.

Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com

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