Why Labor Advocates Want Abortion and Reproductive Care Covered

As Congress works to pass President Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID stimulus bill, leaders of the movement for workers’ rights haven’t just been fighting for a $15 minimum wage and other key protections for unions and low-wage workers to be included in the package. They’re also urgently fighting for coverage of reproductive health care, amid a pandemic that has exacerbated barriers to abortion and birth control — especially for low-wage workers, who are more likely to be women of color.

The inextricable intersections between economic justice and reproductive justice have often been obscured by the siloing of the two issues. Yet, reproductive justice, a framework founded by Black women that centers communities of color and asserts each of us should have the health care and resources we need to parent or not parent, and live and thrive in our own communities, is also essential to the dignity and rights of working people, says Erica Smiley, executive director of Jobs With Justice, a union rights organization.

“We know the majority of people who seek abortion care are below the poverty line, and the unintended pregnancy rate is more than five times higher for women in poverty,” Smiley says. On top of this, Smiley notes those who face “disproportionate need” for abortion care also face “disproportionate lack of access.”

Last summer, in response to Kamala Harris joining the Democratic presidential ticket, Jobs With Justice and One Fair Wage partnered with All* Above All, a coalition for abortion access, to demand that the next administration make workers’ rights and workers’ access to reproductive health care a policy priority. One Fair Wage President Saru Jayaraman said in a statement, “The women who put food on our tables — our servers, bartenders, cooks — too often struggle to put food on their own. Many who are living paycheck to paycheck, and an unexpected medical expense can push them into poverty.” Jayaraman also called for the next administration to offer “a plan to ensure low-wage workers can get health care, including abortion care.”

Unwanted pregnancy and inability to afford an abortion have long been shown to lead to increased risk of poverty as well as domestic violence, and worsened physical and mental health outcomes. A health emergency like an unwanted pregnancy can also result in women and pregnant workers losing their jobs amid an economic recession, if they can’t work because of the health emergency, or face retaliation from their employer. Last quarter, all jobs lost in the workforce were lost by women.

Economic justice and reproductive justice issues have always been closely intertwined — all the more so during a pandemic that has created added barriers to reproductive care, and while women and disproportionately women of color workers shoulder the brunt of job losses, as well as child care and other domestic demands.

The states with the highest poverty rates, including Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, and Kentucky, also have the most restrictions around abortion care, often requiring people to travel great distances and pay for transportation, lodging, child care (if they’re one of the 60 percent of people who have abortions who are already parents), and lose income from missing work. Ninety percent of U.S. counties lack an abortion provider, and six states have just one provider.

The pandemic has worsened these barriers by creating new restrictions and safety risks that go hand in hand with travel. More people are also struggling to afford abortion care and contraception, as a result of loss of jobs, insurance coverage, and savings. In particular, women, and especially women of color, have been disproportionately impacted by the recession extending from the pandemic. And if they’re forced to carry an unwanted pregnancy because they can’t afford abortion and other reproductive care, they’re more likely to be pushed out of the workforce, and deeper into poverty.

Jobs With Justice’s key demands of the Biden administration and Congress, as both try to move forward on a relief package, include lifting the Hyde Amendment, a policy that restricts Medicaid coverage of abortion care. As a result of Hyde, one in four poor women seeking an abortion are forced to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term, putting them and their children at higher risk of remaining or being pushed deeper into poverty. Despite widespread public support for abortion coverage, Hyde has put politics before the health and autonomy of pregnant people since 1976.

“Demanding abortion coverage and overturning Hyde is step one for us,” Smiley says, also noting that abortion coverage advances racial justice too. “That’s essential for women of color to actually be supported and get the resources they need to thrive.”

In addition to pressuring lawmakers to change policy to cover abortion and the full range of reproductive health care, Jobs With Justice is also focusing on demanding protections for workers to collectively bargain. According to Smiley, these protections are critical to advancing reproductive justice, because they could empower women and pregnant workers to bargain for the health care and resources they need for themselves and their families.

“When women have direct decision-making power to negotiate for what employer-provided health care they have, they secure the systems of support they need,” Smiley says. “Whether they’re middle- or high- or low-income, they can negotiate their own conditions to create access to health coverage, negotiate other factors in their lives to support and create families they imagine for themselves.”

To preface its First 100 Days Agenda for Abortion Justice, a list of policy recommendations for the Biden-Harris administration to advance economic, racial, and reproductive justice, All* Above All states, “We are not just talking about the legal right to abortion — that is not and was never enough.” In addition to expanding abortion access by lifting Hyde and restrictions on telemedicine and medication abortion, All* Above All’s demands include a $15 federal minimum wage, eliminating the tipped minimum wage, and protecting essential workers from deportation, all of which are critical to ensuring workers and families can afford and access the care they need.

For years, advocates for reproductive and labor justice faced an uphill battle against the Trump administration and Republican-controlled Senate. With the urgency of the pandemic and recession, and with the Democratic-controlled Congress and White House, now is the time to enact significant policy change, to prepare women and families for future crises.

“This situation, with a global pandemic but also climate disasters like the winter storms of Texas and wildfires in California — caring for yourself is difficult enough, but for many, they also have to manage a family in that context,” Smiley says. “When women access reproductive care, they can better prepare for crises — without that, they’re further endangered and disenfranchised.”

Speaking of “disenfranchisement,” according to Smiley, when women experience unwanted pregnancy, lose their jobs, and are unable to afford abortion care or the resources they need to parent or take care of themselves, this can create a “new class of people,” who often either face too many barriers to vote, or are too disillusioned to do so. Without taking urgent action to offer life-saving support to workers and their families, Democratic politicians should expect to risk losing a key voting bloc, Smiley says.

Today, amid the ongoing pandemic and an economic recession falling hardest on the shoulders of women workers, the new administration and new Congress have a nearly unprecedented opportunity to rebuild the economy and health system to work for all of us. And labor and reproductive justice leaders are determined to make sure lawmakers meet this moment by uniting to expand access to reproductive health care.

Note: Women’s Media Center is a member of the All* Above All coalition.