Abortionists unionize as states restrict procedure

Abortionists across the country are petitioning to unionize at a higher rate since the overturn of Roe v. Wade, joining the broader inter-industry union movement.

According to the National Labor Relations Board, at least eight abortion-related groups have petitioned to unionize since the overturn of Roe v. Wade last summer.

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At least four Planned Parenthood affiliates have petitioned to unionize since the overturn of Roe, joining roughly 12 total affiliates. Those clinics exist in Minnesota, Washington, Massachusetts, and California and have experienced a spike in the number of people seeking abortions since some states have decided to restrict the procedure.

“It is no surprise the abortion industry treats its own employees poorly, considering that it treats human life in the womb as medical waste,” E.V. Osment, SBA Pro-Life America vice president for communications, told the Washington Examiner. “We know there are abortion industry workers out there who believed they helped women but come to a cruel realization that they’ve been cogs in a ruthless, profit-driven ($1.9 billion from Planned Parenthood’s latest report), ‘assembly line’ business capitalizing off of women at their most vulnerable moment.”

While the number of abortion workers affected is unknown, one of the groups is a Planned Parenthood in California, where close to 300 employees voted to unionize. It is one of the largest outposts of the abortion provider in the country.

“Everything happened at the same time — with the additional workload and the movement of seeing how people were organizing and progressing,” Brittany Conner, a National Network of Abortion Funds human resources worker and union member, said, according to Bloomberg. “We just really believed that all workers deserve the protection of a union.”

Last month, another clinic, Partners in Abortion Care in Maryland, “voluntarily recognized” the staff’s decision to unionize.

“We know there is no reproductive justice without economic justice,” an X post from the group states. “We believe the only way forward for our movement is to live our values and support the right of workers to unionize.”

California’s increase in abortions preceded the overturn of Roe, as laws like Texas’s SB 8, a heartbeat bill stopping the procedure around six weeks, took effect in 2021. According to the Guttmacher Institute, an abortion advocacy and research group, abortions in the Golden State increased 17% from 2020 to 2023, comparing month by month. Employees at Guttmacher voted to unionize last year and have been in contract negotiations since September.

The Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest is one affiliate that chose to unionize.

According to Bloomberg, workers are seeking higher entry-level wages and ways to address staffing shortages. “When we have more of a strain on abortion, it does affect the other services that we can provide because I’m only one person and I can only see so many patients in a day,” affiliate clinician and nurse practitioner Mia Neustein said.

Abortion unionization comes as healthcare workers and other industries are making moves to organize or renegotiate.

Earlier this month, over 75,000 Kaiser Permanente employees staged a strike — the largest ever in the healthcare industry in the United States. Early Friday morning, management and union workers reached a deal.

The number of notices unionized healthcare workers filed with their employers to seek new contracts has increased since June 2022, when Roe was overturned. Since then, 269 notices have been filed in 21 of 25 states where abortion is still legal, according to the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, a federal agency that mediates labor disputes across the country. That is up from the preceding 15 months from Roe, where only 99 notices were filed in those same states.

Auto workers, Hollywood writers and actors, and United Parcel Service employees have also agitated for new contracts.

The auto workers strike is ongoing, with workers walking out of Ford Motor Company on Wednesday, shutting down the legacy brand’s largest factory in Louisville, Kentucky. On Friday, United Auto Workers union President Shawn Fain said he is extending the strike and will give vehicle manufacturers “little notice” for walkouts.

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Earlier this week, talks with actors ended poorly and contract negation was suspended, extending the three-month standoff. However, writers in Hollywood reached a deal on Monday, ending a five-month strike.

UPS workers avoided a strike, as earlier this summer they negotiated new contracts for $30 billion over five years.