What Donald Trump’s Pregnancy Rule Could Mean for Miscarriages - Newsweek

The Trump administration is preparing changes to federal workplace pregnancy rules that could reshape how the government treats miscarriage-related accommodations on the job.

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) rules explicitly cover workers who need time off or other adjustments because of a miscarriage, while emerging research suggests workplace pregnancy accommodations may also be associated with fewer miscarriages in the first place.

What remains unknown is whether the administration will preserve miscarriage protections when it proposes a new definition of the medical conditions covered by the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA).

The EEOC's regulatory agenda says the agency intends to propose changes in November to its interpretation of "pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions," a phrase that determines the law's scope.

Under current regulations, that definition expressly includes the end of a pregnancy through miscarriage, stillbirth or abortion.

As of Wednesday, however, the proposal had not appeared among the EEOC's 2026 documents published in the Federal Register, meaning the precise language needed to determine what would happen to miscarriage protections is not yet public.

"Some of the more controversial aspects of the current rule are that it includes accommodation for abortion - although that portion has already been blocked by a court - and things like fertility issues and contraception," Professor Jessie Hill, director of the Reproductive Rights Law Initiative at Case Western Reserve University's School of Law, told Newsweek. "I'm honestly not sure that miscarriage is one of those controversial things. Miscarriage is pretty obviously related to pregnancy, since you can't have miscarriage unless you're pregnant.

"If the EEOC narrows its definition of 'pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions,' workers may lose some of the protections they currently have. They will have to fall back on existing laws like the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA), which is less comprehensive."

Newsweek has contacted the EEOC and White House for comment.

The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, which took effect in June 2023, requires covered employers to consider reasonable accommodations for workers with known limitations arising from pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, unless the accommodation would create an undue hardship.

Current EEOC guidance expressly says the law can cover an employee who "needs time off because of a miscarriage." Existing regulations also treat miscarriage and stillbirth as pregnancy-related medical conditions rather than limiting accommodations to someone who remains pregnant.

Megan Thomas, a sexual harassment and employee law attorney who owns Megan Thomas Law in Syracuse, New York, told Newsweek that workers recovering from a miscarriage may need workplace flexibility as well as temporary changes to their physical duties.

“After a miscarriage, someone may need a more flexible schedule,” Thomas said. “This could include the ability to work from home or additional breaks. Other accommodations can include light duty for jobs that involve lifting.”

“Miscarriages are considered pregnancy-related medical conditions under the current federal rules because they are closely related to pregnancy,” she added. “Currently, there is explicit protection for someone going through a miscarriage in the EEOC language.”

There is not yet enough public information to say that the administration intends to exclude miscarriage. The government's regulatory listing says the EEOC plans to revise the definition of "pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions," but does not disclose the replacement language.

Workers' rights have not changed simply because a revision is planned. The existing regulation defines protected pregnancy-related conditions to include "termination of pregnancy, including via miscarriage, stillbirth, or abortion."

Brianna Williams, founder and managing attorney of Mélange | A Williams Firm, told Newsweek: “Miscarriage is where a narrower PWFA rule would be felt first.”

“Miscarriage falls squarely at that boundary, because a worker’s need for accommodation often begins at the moment her pregnancy ends,” Williams said. “The current regulation resolves that question in her favor. If the revised rule leaves it unresolved, I expect many employers to resolve it against her, long before any court has occasion to weigh in.”

Williams stressed that changing an agency regulation would not rewrite the law passed by Congress.

“A regulation cannot narrow the statute, and a worker who miscarries would retain a strong argument that the PWFA protects her,” she said. “The more immediate consequences would arise in the workplace, where most accommodation decisions are made.”

Other federal laws could provide some protection if miscarriage-related accommodations were narrowed, but they do not necessarily provide the same rights.

Alison Breiter, department lead for labor and employment at Farah & Farah, said the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) could cover some physical or mental impairments associated with miscarriage, while some workers may qualify for unpaid, job-protected leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).

“We do have a patchwork of employment protections, but they are not interchangeable,” Breiter told Newsweek. “The PWFA provides a specific accommodation right that may not be available under the ADA, Title VII, or FMLA. Narrowing the PWFA could leave some workers with fewer practical options, particularly those who do not meet the eligibility requirements of other laws.”

Research has also raised the question of whether workplace accommodations during pregnancy may affect pregnancy outcomes.

Research from University of Wisconsin-Madison has put the estimated decline in miscarriages associated with pregnancy-accommodation protections at about 9.6 percent, alongside a 3.2 percent increase in live births in newly covered states.

The findings do not establish that denying a particular worker an accommodation will cause a miscarriage, nor do they mean accommodations can prevent all pregnancy losses.

Williams said there is a possible explanation for the association but cautioned against drawing conclusions about individual miscarriages.

“The most plausible explanation is physical. Heavy lifting, prolonged standing, heat exposure, and missed prenatal appointments all place strain on a pregnancy, and accommodation laws allow workers to reduce that strain without jeopardizing their employment,” she said.

But Williams added: “I would nonetheless interpret these findings with care. I am an attorney, not an epidemiologist, and population-level research identifies patterns; it cannot establish that any individual loss resulted from a denied accommodation.”

“The research examines whether accommodations during pregnancy help prevent loss,” Williams said. “The proposed rule will determine whether a worker who has already experienced a loss is entitled to time to recover.”

Workers in physically demanding and lower-wage jobs could face particular difficulties if pregnancy-related accommodations become harder to obtain because many cannot work remotely or absorb unpaid time away.

“Workers who have physically demanding jobs are most likely to need accommodations during pregnancy,” Thomas told Newsweek. “Also, in low-wage jobs women often need the law to support their requests for accommodations. Without a law that supports their right to ask for accommodations, they may not ask for them.”

Breiter said employees in warehouses, restaurants and hospitals can have fewer options when their jobs require standing, lifting or other physical work.

“Unlike an office employee who may be able to work remotely or adjust her schedule, someone working in a warehouse, restaurant, or hospital may have very few options if her employer refuses to modify her duties,” Breiter said.

Williams said workplace attendance policies can create another problem for employees undergoing treatment or recovering from pregnancy loss.

“In those cases, the termination often appears routine on paper: attendance points accrued during weeks of medical appointments and recovery, followed by a separation notice,” she said. “These are precisely the workers the PWFA was enacted to protect.”

The next concrete development should be the proposed EEOC regulation itself. The administration's Unified Agenda schedules a notice of proposed rulemaking for this month and anticipates the public-comment period ending in January, although regulatory-agenda dates are estimates rather than guarantees.

Once the proposal is published, one of the first tests will be straightforward: whether "miscarriage" remains explicitly included in the regulation's definition of covered medical conditions.

Thomas said the proposal's treatment of the period after a pregnancy ends could be as important as whether miscarriage remains explicitly named.

“We want to look for language around timing, for example are women only protected ‘during’ pregnancy or for pregnancy-related conditions,” she said. “We also want to look for whether the term ‘miscarriage’ is explicitly included.”

Breiter said the analysis should go further than checking whether a single word survives in the regulation.

“I would not judge the proposal simply by whether it removes the word miscarriage,” she said. “I would look at whether it changes the practical ability of an employee to obtain time off, medical recovery accommodations, or temporary workplace modifications following a miscarriage. That is where the real impact will be felt.”

Williams said the details surrounding abortion provisions will also warrant scrutiny because some miscarriage care can involve the same medications or procedures used for abortion.

“The regulatory text and examples will matter more than any accompanying announcement,” she said.

Either outcome would give the proposal consequences extending beyond the political battle over abortion. The PWFA was designed to determine when workers can ask employers to modify their jobs because pregnancy has affected their ability to work. The administration's forthcoming regulation will reveal whether miscarriage remains firmly within that federal workplace guarantee.

Newsweek’s reporters and editors used Martyn, our AI assistant, to produce this story. Learn more about Martyn here. Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Edward T. Cummins