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Ohioans Fighting for Abortion Rights and Labor Rights, Side by Side
This month marks one year since Ohioans staved off an anti-democratic ballot measure, then referred to as Issue 1. The measure, backed by anti-abortion politicians and groups, sought to increase the threshold for passing future ballot measures from a simple majority to 60%. Why do this, you ask? Because Ohioans were fighting to enshrine reproductive freedom in the state constitution in November 2023 and anti-abortion forces knew that abortion was, and still is, popular. Opponents believed that raising signature-collecting and voting thresholds, using a biased and incendiary description of the ballot measure, and spreading lies and disinformation on a taxpayer-funded government website would squash the reproductive freedom measure—but they were wrong.
In the end, the anti-democratic ballot measure failed and the reproductive freedom ballot measure passed. This was due, in no small part, to tireless organizing by a coalition of groups in the state who knew that Ohioans deserved more than anti-abortion politicians were willing to give them. These groups included not only reproductive health, rights, and justice organizations, but also worker justice and labor organizations.
The fights for abortion access and labor rights are one and the same. We know that the politicians that are trying to take away our right to unionize are the same ones that are trying to take away our right to access abortion care. But what does this have to do with democracy? In Ohio, state legislators have seriously restricted voting rights in a state that is one of the most gerrymandered in the country (to the point that there is a new anti-gerrymandering initiative on the ballot this year). This is not a coincidence—voter suppression goes hand-in-hand with reproductive and worker oppression. A recent analysis found that states with the most voting restrictions are more likely to have abortion bans and restrictions. And many of these states have the biggest gaps between what women and men get paid for the same work.
Reproductive and labor rights organizations in Ohio understand that these fights are inextricably connected. Since Ohio enshrined reproductive freedom into its constitution, organizations like Cleveland Jobs with Justice and Abortion Forward have been working together to make abortion access a reality for working-class people in the state. One main arena for this collaboration has been fighting against local anti-abortion centers (AACs), also known as crisis pregnancy centers. AACs use deceptive tactics and disinformation to prevent people from accessing abortion care, all while targeting working-class people who are at the highest risk of losing wages or their jobs when forced to carry a pregnancy. Cleveland Jobs with Justice and Abortion Forward are leading community education, petition writing, investigations, and other efforts to stop AACs in Ohio. They are also engaging local unions who understand how these centers harm their members and their members’ families. This type of collaboration comes from a keen awareness among reproductive rights and labor groups that the fight doesn’t end with passing a ballot measure and that working together is the only way to create meaningful change for communities.
There is still much work to be done to make the promise of reproductive freedom a reality for working-class Ohioans—including funding and destigmatizing abortion care, repealing gestational bans and barriers like waiting periods, and protecting and expanding access to the full range of reproductive health care. But there’s hope, because the reproductive rights and worker justice movements are deeply familiar with putting democracy into practice in the face of anti-democratic attacks. Labor groups practice democracy every day by organizing union members, collective bargaining, and advocating for a future that challenges corporate greed and preserves dignity for working-class people. Reproductive rights groups practice democracy through organizing ballot measures, unionizing repro workers, and fighting to ensure that people have the freedom and autonomy to make their own decisions about their bodies and their families. Democracy is certainly under attack, but labor and reproductive rights groups, in Ohio and elsewhere, are fighting and winning together.
