A management-side law firm says a former Trump EEOC official is using her prior position to scare employers that are considering providing abortion travel benefits.

The Littler Workplace Policy Institute sent a letter Friday requesting that the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s current legal counsel investigate its former General Counsel Sharon Fast Gustafson for warning employers that the commission would take enforcement action over employee abortion travel benefits.

Gustafson, a Trump appointee, was fired by the Biden administration in March 2021 after refusing to resign.

She was known to prioritize fighting religious discrimination in the workplace during her tenure. Her legal stances prompted at least one EEOC attorney to voice concern that the agency’s approach in a religious bias lawsuit against Kroger Co. could impinge on the rights of LGBT workers.

But Gustafson, an attorney who according to her website is practicing in Virginia, has allegedly contacted multiple employers suggesting the EEOC may bring charges against companies that provide medical travel benefits if those benefits are related to obtaining an abortion, according to the letter from Littler to the agency.

Over 120 large employers in states where abortion is now illegal after the US Supreme Court’s June 24 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization have announced coverage of travel for abortion...

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