Extremist judges will not stop endangering the lives of pregnant people or people who may become pregnant—overturning Roe v. Wade, attacking medication abortion, threatening the future of IVF, and this week at SCOTUS, emergency abortion care.
Our lawyers are waging strategic fights that make clear what is at stake for people who can become pregnant and seek to bolster our fundamental rights to control our lives, futures, and destinies.
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The Center has won landmark advances to improve the lives of women for more than 40 years. Recent accomplishments range from protecting pregnant workers to raising the minimum wage in states across the country.
Here’s a selection of some of our most recent accomplishments:
Won a Presidential Executive Order that strengthens equal pay laws by prohibiting federal contractors from retaliating against employees who discuss their pay and a Presidential directive requiring federal contractors to provide pay data by gender and race — both of which will help employees in nearly a quarter of the workforce learn of and address pay disparities — by leading a coalition of women’s organizations advocating for these actions and garnering significant media attention to the issue.
Secured $1.5 billion in new investments in early learning in the FY 2014 spending bill and secured passage of the first reauthorization of the Child Care and Development Block Grant in nearly 20 years, to improve health and safety standards of child care facilities, make child care more affordable, and train child care providers, through leadership of the Strong Start for Children campaign and its nearly 400 partners, organizing high-profile events, and much more.
Was a leader in the response to the Hobby Lobby birth control case, including by filing an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of 68 groups, which asserted the government’s compelling interest in promoting women’s health and ending gender discrimination through contraceptive coverage; championing federal legislation to overturn the Court’s harmful ruling, which allowed closely held corporations to deny women birth control coverage; authoring amicus briefs in other legal challenges, and activating thousands of supporters to press for contraceptive access.
Spearheaded the effort to increase the number of women judges in federal courts by raising attention to the importance of women in the judiciary and pressing the Senate to approve key nominations, which led to the confirmation of more women judges during President Obama’s presidency than any other and an increase in the percentage of women judges serving on the U.S. Courts of Appeals to almost 35 percent, including five women out of 11 on the D.C. Circuit.
Protected the jobs and health of pregnant workers by leading the fight that secured laws requiring fair treatment in Delaware, New Jersey, West Virginia, and D.C. and assisting the effort that secured laws in Illinois and Minnesota; winning EEOC guidance underscoring employers’ obligations to make the same accommodations for pregnant workers that they make for other workers with medical needs; authoring a Supreme Court brief joined by 123 members of Congress in the Supreme Court case, Young v UPS, which challenged UPS’ refusal to accommodate the medical needs of a pregnant worker; and securing the rescission of a Peace Corps policy that terminated pregnant Volunteers from service after the fourth month of pregnancy unless supervisors concluded they would be able to serve effectively after childbirth.
Helped win federal contractor and state minimum wage increases through a Presidential Executive Order and legislation in Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Minnesota and West Virginia, which were among the 10 states and D.C. that passed legislation raising the wage in 2014, by analyzing and disseminating new data, producing materials highlighting the impact of a higher minimum wage on women — who are two-thirds of minimum-wage workers — and making a higher wage a fair pay issue; testifying before Congress, and educating the public.
Stood up for the more than one in five students sexually assaulted on college campuses each year, by securing a new federal rule to improve transparency about the rate of sexual assault and the policies, procedures, and preventative programs to address it, and securing improvements in enforcement of Title IX sexual assault and harassment cases.
