This past week marked one year since the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization to overturn 50 years of precedent in Roe v. Wade.
This ruling continues to reverberate throughout our communities and have a direct and harmful impact on the lives of working women, people and families.
The state of reproductive health care in America is increasingly marked by confusion, uncertainty and chaos, and it has become more evident that the quality of health care we receive depends on where we live and work and our economic standing. Each day, we read horrifying stories of women who are denied lifesaving care, doctors facing criminal charges for simply doing what they were trained to do and extremist politicians who will stop at nothing to restrict interstate travel for people seeking reproductive care.
The burden of this decision will continue to fall disproportionately on low-income women and gender-oppressed people. It will work to deepen racial and economic disparities and push working families already struggling to get by into further financial insecurity. Dobbs was a wake-up call for working people to take action, and as we continue to deal with the fallout from the court’s decision, we are lifting our voices to demand economic justice and equity.
Now that the Supreme Court has forced a fight over fundamental rights into statehouses across the country, working people are speaking out in favor of legislation that would protect and expand the right to bodily autonomy and the confidential relationship between providers and patients. We are also demanding that electeds must prioritize overdue and necessary investments in our child care system and family and medical paid leave, end the gender wage gap, and increase access to jobs with high wages and good benefits. Efforts from extremist lawmakers to curtail our rights will only continue to ramp up over the next several months, but the labor movement will continue to stand in the gap.
As we look to the future, we must continue to increase the power of workers who have a union so that we can go to the bargaining table and stake out our right to comprehensive health care. That’s why we’re working hard to raise awareness about the power of a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) to hold employers accountable and guarantee access to quality reproductive care. A union contract gives working families the support and protection we need to make the decision that is best for us.
If you are already in a union or you are considering forming a union to strengthen your rights in the workplace, check out these important resources to get started:
