18. Department of Labor and Related Agencies · Notable · Needs Congress
Clarify that ERISA does not preempt state abortion restrictions
Printed page 585 18. Department of Labor and Related Agencies
“Congress and DOL should clarify that ERISA does not preempt states’ power to restrict abortion, surrogacy, or other anti-life “benefits.””
What has happened
- Not started
Neither Congress nor the Department of Labor has clarified that ERISA does not preempt state restrictions on abortion, surrogacy or similar plan benefits. No bill of the 119th Congress addresses ERISA preemption of state abortion law, and EBSA has published no rule, advisory opinion or Federal Register notice on the question; the only ERISA preemption bill in the window, the ERISA Litigation Reform Act (H.R. 6084), is about litigation procedure and was ordered reported on 2026-03-17 without a floor vote.
No action found yet. This entry is the starting point, not a finding.
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
- Negative search: chapter log, Cluster negative search — abortion, pregnancy and ERISA benefit asks (#1604, #1605).
- The DOL half of the ask is measurable and empty: the Employee Benefits Security Administration’s whole Federal Register output for the window (listed in the chapter log) contains nothing on preemption of state law.
- H.R. 6084 is an adjacent bill under §3b, not this ask: reforming ERISA litigation procedure is not clarifying the reach of ERISA preemption over state abortion restrictions.
- Action
- restrict
- Object
- ERISA preemption of state abortion restrictions
- ID
- 1605