In a newly released report, the National Partnership for Women & Families documents the parallels between harsh abortion restrictions and lack of access to health care and workplace supports for parents. The report, covered exclusively by Axios, finds that in many cases, states that have abortion bans or heavy restrictions are the same states that fail to provide access to health care or equitable workplace policies.

Researchers found that of the 30 states that rate poorly on crucial work and care policies, 24 also lack abortion protections. Mississippi is one of those states, and serves as a prime example of the compounding impacts:

• The state has no workplace protections for expecting and new parents beyond what federal laws require.
• Mississippi has restrictive abortion access and has rejected Medicaid expansion and 12-month post-partum Medicaid coverage.

These failures are especially harmful for the large populations of Black women and other women of color in the states, who are more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women. As the National Partnership previously found, 15 million women of color will be impacted by restrictive abortion bans.

Sinsi Hernández-Cancio, the organization’s vice president for health justice, said the findings reveal how abortion intersects with health care and wage inequality. Hernández-Cancio said, “The data is clear: forced birth and parenthood can have devastating lifelong consequences that undermine your health and economic security – especially for women of color. For example, we know that people who seek abortion care and are denied are also more likely to experience chronic pain and poor health, and are more likely to fall into poverty.”

Sharita Gruberg, vice president for economic justice, said the findings clearly demonstrate that pro-family states secure abortion access alongside workplace fairness policies for women and parents. “As the pandemic and rising living costs fuel a burnout epidemic among women and caregivers, states that have failed to provide basic supports like fair wages, workplace protections, and paid leave are now also implementing harsh abortion restrictions and outright bans. By adding to these burdens, women and other people who can become pregnant in these states face threats on all fronts to their economic security. People of color, transgender and non-binary people, people with disabilities, and those with low incomes face the brunt of these attacks”

The report is accompanied by a set of maps and a series of policy recommendations for state and national policymakers.

Read the full report here.

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