President Donald Trump neutralized a political landmine during the election by emphatically promising he would not sign a national abortion ban, and it's clear now that's not how he will start stifling policies that benefit American women. The president's dead of night evisceration of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission—a little-known federal agency that oversees and enforces pregnancy accommodations, anti-discrimination laws, and a broad range of federal rights, including those under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act—destroys rights to choice that affect hundreds of millions of American women.
Trump's gutting of this small commission, however under-the-radar, will have outsize consequences, likely by design. And it should reveal to anyone still questioning where he stands that a total erasure of women's reproductive rights is in this White House's schemes.
But how the right is going about achieving this long-sought goal is far slyer than anticipated. Firing obscure federal employees on commissions that most voters aren't aware of may end up being more effective than a high profile gesture. No matter how many real-life consequences occur, it won't turn a crowd out. And that's just what Trump is counting on.
With a different version of the EEOC, Trump can use employment laws as a stalking-horse to attack women's choices, including abortion, in vitro fertilization, and other reproductive health care necessities. And while this development, like so many other Trump executive actions, are undoubtedly headed to court, what is clear is that the battle lines are being drawn in workplaces across America, such as gas stations, construction sites, and grocery stores.
In 2022, the Pregnant Women's Fairness Act, or PWFA, quietly passed Congress with strong bipartisan support. The PWFA requires that employers provide reasonable accommodations for employees who are pregnant, have recently had a baby, or have medical conditions related to either. It also means that employers can't force women onto leave if they're in these circumstances or retaliate against them for requesting accommodations. That means an employer must allow a woman in her third trimester to sit while working at a cash register at a convenience mart—like Arya, an Ohio woman who called my organization's free legal helpline when her boss refused to let her sit at work during her shift.
The EEOC wrote and enforced the critical regulations that implement the PWFA. These regulations interpret the law's protections to include when a pregnancy ends—either through miscarriage, abortion, or live birth—and when a pregnancy begins, including through fertility procedures.
This means that right now, under the terms of the PWFA, if you're a woman going to an abortion or IVF appointment, your employer must give you time off for the appointment and must accommodate any needs within the workplace pertaining to those events, unless doing so would be too difficult or expensive.
Without these protections, it is basically impossible for working women—especially those in lower-wage jobs, including hourly, shift, and physical labor jobs—to access these medical procedures. The White House is clearly seeking to eliminate a woman's legal work protections as she accesses or recovers from an abortion.
This forces women to choose between their jobs and getting an abortion. Here's where the EEOC comes in: a new slate of Trump-appointed commissioners would very likely completely gut and eviscerate these regulations. And a new EEOC can also choose not to investigate or file cases enforcing the PWFA.
It is also unlikely that a Trump Justice Department will defend the PWFA in court. There are already a number of states suing to challenge the law, including Louisiana and Arkansas, and without the weight of the federal government behind it, the PWFA is set up to fail.
It doesn't stop there. Who will Trump's executive order returning federal employees to full-time work in offices without a practical justification hurt the most? Mothers, pregnant women, and caregivers. Other moves to ban funding for aid organizations that provide abortion services or educate women about certain health care options will also be damaging.
Within the shock and awe of Trump's first actions, even ones that appear obscure, it's clear that American women and their choices are already under attack. The battle is here. It just hasn't started in the way we anticipated. That doesn't make it any less real.
Death by a thousand paper cuts is still just that.
Inimai Chettiar is the president of A Better Balance, one of the country's foremost advocates for paid leave, family leave, and workplace policy advancements for women and families.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
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