Feature Summary: Worker’s Rights are Reproductive Rights
We know that access to abortion care is a determining factor of economic stability for both the pregnant person and the future generations of their family. The right and availability to control your own body, and the right and availability to control your labor are inextricably linked; you simply can’t have one without the other..
That’s why, all summer long, Abortion Action Missouri, together with coalition partners statewide, is collecting signatures to advance a ballot measure that raises the minimum wage and guarantees workers paid sick leave.
Missouri workers, women and people with capacity for pregnancy and their families are suffering from decades of disinvestment in our communities. For many reasons, including structural racism and implicit bias in medicine, the closure of seven rural hospitals in MO since 2014, a growing number of people falling in the insurance gap, and continued attacks on abortion and reproductive healthcare access, the maternal and infant mortality rates in MO continue to rival that of both peer and less-resourced nations.
Restrictions on access to comprehensive sexual/reproductive care, like abortion, threaten the autonomy, health, and economic stability of working people. Bans on abortion trap people and families in cycles of poverty. Right now, full-time minimum wage workers make less than $500/week, not even $25,000/year and over 200,000 Missouri workers lack access to a single minute of paid time off. That’s not enough money to live off of– let alone when faced with an unwanted pregnancy in a state that has banned abortion care.
It is our duty to advocate for a wide range of policies that address the holistic health, rights, and well-being of our communities – like paid sick leave and a living wage – that are foundational to a person’s ability to exercise reproductive freedom.
Reproductive Freedom Fighter:
Last Monday, July 17th Abortion Action Missouri’s Community Engagement Manager Rev. Dr. Love Holt became the FIRST PERSON to share their self- managed abortion story to the US Congress. Dr. Love, a guest of Congresswoman Cori Bush, spoke to the Democrats of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform about the current abortion access crisis and the importance of protecting access to medication abortion pills. The committee members heard from people who have self managed their own abortions with abortion pills alongside abortion advocates and providers from across the country.
Dr. Love has been a beloved part of the the Abortion Action Missouri team since 2021; she is also an abortion doula, herbal womb practitioner and storyteller who has shared her abortion stories and experiences–- from roundtables to rallies, from the Missouri capitol to the U.S. Capitol. Hear an interview with Dr. Love and Congresswoman Bush on STL Public Radio talking about the importance of medication abortion access. Last week, Dr. Love spoke powerfully about her experience with self managed abortion post-Dobbs decision, “The Dobbs decision is a death sentence for thousands of Black women and birthing women.” Thank you, Dr. Love for your courage and leadership.
Take Action, Take Care
✅ Urge members of Congress to fund the Title X program fully and cosponsor the Right to Contraception Act.
✨Request FREE Emergency Contraception (Plan B) delivered to your doorstep from our partners at MFHC!
✅ Request a Training on Self Managed Abortion with Reproaction!
✨ All Options is the only national hotline that welcomes anonymous calls at any point during or after pregnancy.
✅ Join Abortion Action’s Reproductive Justice community call hosted by Dr. Love Holt every month!
On Our Radar
- MO Supreme Court rules AG Bailey must certify abortion ballot titles – for months Andrew Bailey has withheld certification, insisting that an abortion ballot measure would cost the state 12.5 billion in Medicaid dollars. Last week the MO Supreme Court unanimously ruled against him.
- Podcast: Abortion Provider Barbie (these barbies are abortion advocates!)
- FDA approves first over-the-counter birth control pill in US – read about the FDA decision in this article featuring executive director Mallory Schwarz
- State Laws Supercharge Book Suppression in Schools – Missouri follows Texas and Florida, with the third most incidents of book bans in schools
Have you heard that Missourians might have a chance to vote on abortion at the ballot box? Sign up here to join a volunteer team and learn how to use the initiative petition process! https://secure.everyaction.com/wMMpBDHvPUeAX7whmV5f8A2
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