Alabama is among 17 states suing a federal commission over the body’s new rule requiring employers grant leave for abortions.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) made the new regulation last week, expanding the commission’s definition of “pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions” to include abortions in the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, which requires employers to provide “reasonable accommodation” in those instances.

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall is challenging the new rule along with the attorneys general of 16 other states.

Marshall contends the EEOC overstepped its bounds by issuing the new rule.

“An unelected body like the EEOC Commission does not have the authority to rewrite laws passed by Congress,” Marshall said in a statement. “Congress sought to ensure accommodations on the job to promote the health of pregnant women and their babies. Biden’s EEOC has illegally transformed that bipartisan law into a mandate that employers facilitate abortions. Biden is again violating the law to promote his radical agenda, and we will again stop him.”

Marshall and the other plaintiffs argue the regulation violates the constitution and the Administrative Procedure Act.

Other states challenging the new rule are: Tennessee, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, and West Virginia.

The EEOC says its decision to keep the abortion provisions in its final rules, despite criticism from some conservatives, is consistent with its own longstanding interpretation of Title VII, as well as court rulings. The federal agency added that the new law does not obligate employers or employer-sponsored health plans to cover abortion-related costs, and that the type of accommodation that most likely will be sought under the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act regarding an abortion is time off to attend a medical appointment or for recovery, which does not have to be paid.

The act requires most employers with 15 or more employees to provide “reasonable accommodations” for a worker’s known limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions — including fertility and infertility treatments in some cases — unless the accommodation will cause the employer an undue hardship.

The EEOC’s regulations will go into effect on June 18.

Associated Press reporting was included in this story.