The Quickie: Pregnant Workers Fairness Act Goes Into Effect
For Immediate Release: June 28, 2023
Welcome to “The Quickie” — Planned Parenthood Action Fund’s daily tipsheet on the top health care & reproductive rights stories of the day. You can read “The Quickie'' online here.
In today’s Quickie: Pregnant Workers Fairness Act goes into effect; new polling on health care workers and college students show strong concern about abortion bans.
OH, BABY: PREGNANT WORKERS FAIRNESS ACT GOES INTO EFFECT: Yesterday, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) finally went into effect after nearly a decade of advocacy to expand protections for pregnant people in the workplace. Passed in December as part of the omnibus spending bill, PWFA requires that employers provide reasonable accommodations for pregnancy or childbirth-related medical conditions, closing a loophole that previously required that the onus was on the employee to prove they need accommodations. The PWFA requires that “reasonable accommodations” are made for the entire period of pregnancy including providing chairs, bathroom breaks, access to water, flexibility for morning sickness, and doctors appointments.
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“Especially for low-wage working women and women of color, especially Black and Latina women, there has been generations of undervaluing fair labor, even though that labor is the backbone of our economy,” Elizabeth Gedmark, Vice President at A Better Balance, said in an interview with The 19th*. “The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act is going to change that. We are going to see a shift because pregnancy discrimination will no longer be tolerated.”
Read more at The 19th*.
NEW POLLING: HEALTH CARE WORKERS CONSIDER QUITTING, MOVING OVER ABORTION BANS: According to new polling from Morning Consult, health workers are considering quitting their jobs or moving due to the rising number of abortion bans at the state level. More than one in 10 health care workers have considered leaving the industry in the past year due to abortion bans and restrictions and an equal share say they have worried about their job security. Thirteen percent of health care workers have considered moving to another state where abortion rights are protected.
“While some providers may remain in abortion restrictive states, others may relocate to other states where they can provide the care they were trained to offer,” Danika Severino Wynn, Vice President of Abortion Access at Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said. “Losing physicians creates more health care deserts and worsens existing health care disparities, including the country's abysmal maternal mortality and morbidity rates. This is a decision providers should never be forced to make.”
Read the full polling results at Morning Consult.
COLLEGE STUDENTS & THEIR PARENTS OVERWHELMINGLY CONCERNED ABOUT ABORTION ACCESS: New polling from Morning Consult and Institute for Women’s Policy Research found that the majority of college students from the northeast and their parents prefer colleges in states with abortion access.
- 76% of student respondents said they prefer to go to college in a state where abortion is legal and accessible and 100% of parents who financially contribute to their child’s education agree.
- 63% of students and 52% of parents reported that access to reproductive health care was extremely important when choosing a college.
- 77% of parents reported that they do not want to support a state that bans abortion by sending their child to school there.
- 85% of students and 78% of parents showed concern about the future of access to reproductive health care in the country and more than half of students indicated they are “very concerned”.
Read the full polling data here.