“I consider abortion to be a deeply personal and intimate issue for women and I don’t believe male legislators should even vote on the issue.” ~ Former Senator Alan K. Simpson (R-Wyoming)

“Seventy-seven percent of anti-abortion leaders are men. 100% of them will never be pregnant.” ~ Pro-Choice Advertisement

“Roe v. Wade and access to reproductive health care, including abortion, helped lead to increased labor force participation. It enabled many women to finish school. That increased their earning potential. It allowed women to plan and balance their families and careers.” ~ Janet Yellen, U.S. Treasury Secretary

“The emphasis must be not on the right to abortion but on the right to privacy and reproductive control.” ~ R.B.G.

“So glad you’re having a baby and I am not.” ~ Greeting Card

Thank you for joining me for Part Three of my three-part series on how book banning, gun violence and the restriction of reproductive choice affects the workplace, and everyone else, everywhere. You may read Part One here and Part Two here.

Part Three: Choice and the Workplace

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, as of last year 56.8 percent of women participated in the workforce nationwide, and more than 75 percent of women in their childbearing years participated. Ironically, some states with the highest workforce participation of women now have the most restrictive abortion bans and the least support for children and pregnant women (not to mention the weakest gun laws). Compared to men’s participation, the 2023 rate of which is 68.1 percent, women’s rate is 57.3 percent. However, currently college-educated women outnumber college-educated men in the workforce. There is little doubt, though, that overturning Roe v. Wade will have an adverse impact on women, and by extension their participation in the workforce. Many are expected to leave, curtail their career aspirations, and / or pass on going to college or attaining a higher degree.

As discussed in my previous post, the irony should be clear: There are those who will defend the fetus, but do little to provide access to healthcare, nutrition and education for babies and children to keep them safe from gun violence and restrictions on their first amendment freedoms. This disparity makes the efforts to restrict women from controlling their own bodies seem more like a matter of autocratic government intervention rather than moral concern over the well-being of the fetus.  

The Way We Were

In the Supreme Court’s decision on Dobbs, Justice Samuel Alito wrote these words to help justify the majority opinion: “The Court finds that the right to abortion is not deeply rooted in the Nation’s history and tradition.”

Justice Alito and the rest of the majority were mistaken. 

First, up until the 20th century, when women mobilized to pass the 19th Amendment and prompt the Women’s Liberation Movement of the 1970s that helped to produce Roe, the “Nation” was dominated by (a certain class of) men. Men, you will recall, who left women out of the Declaration of Independence and the original Constitution. Men, who did not worry about such things as getting pregnant (sometimes against one’s will), dealing with the risks, going through labor, nursing babies, raising children — in some cases way too many — or having a condition that would make being pregnant life threatening. Thus, men did not have to be concerned with abortion; that was a woman’s problem and not important enough to worry a man’s head… except to make rules and laws about how a woman’s body must be managed. 

Second, in spite of that male dominance, as far back as the 13 original colonies abortion was, in fact, legal until “quickening” (when fetal movement was first felt) and it was practiced by tribal societies, all of whom became part of the American nation. And during most of the first century of our nation’s existence, while abortion was generally viewed as a societal no-no (as in “don’t ask, don’t tell”), it was not illegal. But in 1847, the newly-formed, all-male American Medical Association began a campaign to ban and criminalize abortion. By the 1860s, some states were passing ambiguous anti-abortion laws, and by the early 20th century all states banned abortion except to save the life of the mother, and those decisions were being made by male doctors, who made up 95% of the profession. But illegality did not stop women who were desperate to obtain abortions, and thousands died trying. And in 1964, Gerri Santoro’s death prompted a movement of women who learned how to perform safe, albeit illegal, abortions, such as The Jane Collective in Chicago, which operated from 1969-1973.

By 1967, Colorado decriminalized abortion in certain cases (rape, incest and harm to the mother), followed by California and North Carolina, and in 1970 Hawaii legalized abortion, followed in quick succession by New York, Alaska and Washington. In 1973, Roe became the law of the land. Today, in all those early states — except for North Carolina, which is cutting back abortion availability to 12 weeks — abortion remains widely legal, reasonable, practical and accessible.

It should also be noted that during the times that abortion has been illegal, they were still performed by medical professionals as well as by women themselves. And prior to Roe, women who could afford to do so freely traveled to countries and to U.S. states where abortions were legal. 

So, for roughly 139 years of our 247-year history, the right to abortion in the United States of America has existed somewhere or everywhere, depending on the era. Hence, for most of our history, the right to abortion has been legal and “deeply rooted in the Nation’s history and tradition.” For 108 of those years when it has been banned or restricted somewhere or everywhere, abortions still occurred.

And, in the opinion of millions, the Fourteenth Amendment does justify the right to reproductive freedom.

Did the majority in the Supreme Court’s decision really not understand the Constitution or U.S. history, or did the justices simply choose to ignore it?  Will present and future generations also be rendered ignorant and uncaring because books on the history of women in America from colonial times to the present are banned from schools and libraries, and women’s history and women’s studies struck from elementary school, high school and college curricula? 

The Way We Are

In our current era, it has been proved beyond a reasonable doubt multiple times that workplaces do better with women not only working alongside men but in senior management positions. And yet, aggressive efforts by an alarming number of radical extremists to sabotage women in the workplace continue. One way to do this is to ban or restrict access to safe and legal abortions. As mentioned, abortion laws pro-and-against have come and gone, but here we are in the 21st century and attempts to restrict access are exceeding anything we’ve seen in American history:

• First, there was the overturning of  Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, which returned to the states decisions concerning control of a woman’s body and reproductive health, and upending a nearly half-century of established federal law.
• Almost immediately, a number of states imposed outrageous draconian laws that effectively eliminated the right to safe and effective reproductive healthcare, even passing vigilante-style laws to sue anyone who aids those who seek an abortion for any reason, including to save the life of the person carrying the embryo or fetus. In some cases, this even applies to miscarriage! As someone who miscarried when my husband and I very much wanted to have a child, I cannot imagine that after the physical and emotional pain that I experienced, I also might have been subjected to arrest!
• Some states that have outlawed reproductive freedom are trying to prevent women from leaving their states to obtain healthcare in states where reproductive freedom still exists! 
•  Also headed for the reproductive chopping block might be birth control, just to ensure that more women will be forced into childbirth.
• And to ensure that more exits are blocked for all women nationally, a Texas judge has challenged the FDA over the use of mifepristone, the “abortion pill.” Currently banned in states where abortion is restricted, the Supreme Court might agree with Texas and ban its use nationwide. This, of course, could affect the FDA’s authority over the use of other medications. 

If these tactics are successful, over time there could be a significant decrease of women in the workplace. Worse, contemplating the number of women who will die because of the lack of reproductive healthcare is horrifying. And, of course, it is ironic and tragic that the country that has been a beacon to women globally where reproductive freedom is not or has not been in existence should now have some of the most repressive anti-abortion and anti-woman laws in the world.

This is particularly galling to me, as I was a young woman when Roe became law. I knew women who had early abortions before and after legalization; before was terrifying and after was simply a safe out-patient procedure at a local medical facility. The daughters of women of that era were born into a nation where their reproductive freedom was guaranteed. Now that freedom has been taken away, and if it is not restored their daughters and granddaughters will be born into a much darker time. We are not just going back 50 years to a time before women finally gained their constitutional right to reproductive healthcare; based on what some states are doing, we are going to a dystopian era most American women alive today have never known. Ironically, this comes at a time when the majority of Americans believe that abortion should be legal in all or most cases!

And here’s a really scary development: Reportedly, many newly-minted doctors prefer to work in states where abortion has remained legal. Should that occur, states where abortion has been restricted will experience a decrease in healthcare services. And not just OB/GYN doctors, but in other specialties, as well. This is another indication that overturning Roe will adversely affect not just women of child-bearing years; it will affect everyone.

In addition, companies in states where abortion is restricted expect to have problems hiring talent. 

Why is this happening?

An Embryo Is A Person? 

Roe declared that the “word ‘person,’ as used in the Fourteenth Amendment, does not include the unborn.” Dobbs claims that it does. But in the view of many, including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). the latter spurious interpretation is used simply to block access to safe and legal abortions. This chilling opinion not only adversely affects people who do not wish to be pregnant, but also those who are trying to become pregnant! Interestingly, the different interpretations by Supreme Court justices of the Fourteenth Amendment could be compared to the Court’s different interpretations of the Second Amendment, as discussed last time. 

It is alarming that many in the anti-abortion camp value the life of an embryo over the life of the woman whose body it is a part. Is it really possible that today some believe that a woman’s body is merely a vessel to incubate the seed of a man? 

Yet, many who place the rights of an embryo / fetus over the health of the person carrying do not seem to feel as strongly about children after they are born, Witness the laws enacted by some of the same lawmakers who oppose abortion that deprive babies and children of adequate healthcare, education, school lunches, food programs, and child labor protection. Nor are these same folks much in favor of women’s prenatal or postnatal care.

Too late, the Supreme Court majority might realize that it opened the proverbial can of worms with its Dobbs argument, as witnessed by its recent decision not to hear a case involving fetal Constitutional rights. 

I believe that the 1973 Roe decision had it right, understanding the sensible balance between protecting the woman carrying the fetus and the fetus itself. 

What Can Employers Do?

Employers have power to change this equation, and should take nothing for granted. Already reports are out about the shifting sands of the workforce, such as the aforementioned preferences of new doctors, and another one reveals that 75 percent of workers under the age of 40, regardless of political affiliation, prefer to work for companies that support access to abortion, and a third, regardless of gender, are ready to switch jobs to work for such companies.

CEOs and Board members of the Fortune 500, heads of non-profits, owners of mid-sized and small businesses can implement policies to protect their employees — because have no doubt that there is a war on women going on, and by extension on businesses, families and the U.S. and world economies. Imagine if businesses started to lose women workers, whose numbers are greatest in the healthcare and educational services industries, who run thousands of small businesses and free-lance in the food and personal care industries. Ask yourself, is your executive assistant a woman? Is your child’s teacher a woman? Is your child’s caregiver a woman? How many women provide services to you, your business and your family? Is it worth it to you that their reproductive rights are protected so that they can continue working, pursuing their educations and careers and growing their businesses?

There are steps employers can take:

• Support candidates through your PACS or other means in national, state and local elections who will protect reproductive rights by codifying Roe or a comparable proposal into law and possibly even initiating a Constitutional Amendment.
• Ensure that while reproductive rights continue under attack, provide time off and, if possible, funding for employees that need an abortion and must travel to another state to obtain one.
• Implement new policies or build on existing ones that create an environment that is supportive of women’s reproductive and family needs, such as accommodations for employees who are pregnant or new mothers (more breaks, convenient parking spaces, privacy rooms for pumping, flex time, work from home, etc.) and time off to recover from miscarriages and abortions. Such policies should extend to all affected employees.  
• Promote, reward and support employees based on performance, dedication, attitude, loyalty and other positive reasons, without prejudice to their reproductive choices.

Some businesses are reportedly at the forefront of supporting women and their reproductive freedom; these include Amazon, Tesla and Citigroup. Others have reportedly funded the restricting of women’s reproductive freedom; these include AT&T, Citigroup, Exxon and Walmart. To be fair, according to the Insider article, AT&T, a million-dollar donor to those who will restrict abortion access, said that it contributed even more money to officials who support abortion access, and that one of its “core values” is the empowerment of women.  But there can be no empowerment when women’s rights are taken away and they are treated like second-class citizens, unworthy of being in charge of their bodies, health and futures! (Update from my original post: Also note that Citigroup is listed in the respective articles cited as both supporting women’s reproductive freedom and at the same time providing funding to support reproductive restrictions. Corporations might want to examine such conflicting actions so that their true goals can be achieved, which we hope is to support the former.) 

As someone who came of age in the 1970s and witnessed the turning point in women’s reproductive health progress, I long for that ’70s enlightenment now, as we are plunged into darkness a half-century later. 

In Closing

As my series on books, guns and choice comes to a close, I hope employers will step up and help to halt and reverse the wholesale banning of books and school courses; weak gun laws, gun proliferation and escalating gun violence; and the cruel, dangerous and outrageous restrictions on women’s reproductive freedom.

It’s ironic that those who tell the government not to stick its nose into their decisions to own and use the guns that have been murdering Americans are often the same people who insist that the government stick its nose into a women’s decision whether or not to be pregnant and bear children, or into a school’s or library’s decision to assign a book for reading or place on its shelves. They seem to be for small government where their interests are concerned, but big government when they want to control the decisions and lives of others. But we can stop the bullies who want to take away our freedoms to read and study what we wish, to be safe from gun violence, and to have control over our own bodies. 

Numerous reports say that the majority of Americans are not in favor of book bans, but are in favor of stricter gun laws and women’s reproductive choices as contained in Roe. It is imperative that Americans who are in these majorities take an active rather than passive role in self-governing. Employers have many tools to do this. But we average Americans have a few tools of our own. We can take a stand, speak up and speak out and use our power to make policies and decisions through letters, emails and telephone calls to our elected representatives; letters to the editor; respectful and informed comments on social media; and our precious right to vote.

The workplace is a second home to most Americans; to many these days, it is home! The workplace is the foundation of our American society. Let’s keep it strong and welcoming to women; in doing so, we will keep it strong and welcoming for all.  

Until next time,

Jeanne

Previous Related Posts:

Guns & Roe: The Hypocrisy & Horror

Roe And The Workplace

Pregnant Women In Business