BISMARCK, N.D. (OSV News) – A federal judge in North Dakota sided with the Catholic Benefits Association in its lawsuit against the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission over two regulations the group says violate Catholics’ religious beliefs. The CBA, which represents 87 dioceses and more than 1,400 other Catholic entities, previously filed suit over two regulations issued earlier this year. One is the final regulation issued for the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, granting workers protections for time off and other job accommodations for pregnancy-related medical conditions such as miscarriage, stillbirth and lactation -- but also for abortion, which was opposed by many of the bill’s supporters. The other involves a provision of the EEOC’s “Enforcement Guidance on Harassment,” which the group argued could penalize Catholic groups for their beliefs about gender identity. In a Sept. 23 order, U.S. District Judge Daniel Traynor in Bismarck granted the CBA a preliminary injunction, ruling that the group was likely to succeed in proving the regulations could force them to violate their beliefs. “The current suit falls into a long line of cases that should be unnecessary in a country that was built on the concept of freedom of religion,” Traynor wrote in his order, adding the issues in the case “are ripe for adjudication.” The broad preliminary injunction blocks EEOC from enforcing its mandates against the parties in the lawsuit