Planned Parenthood Employees’ Push To Unionize Is More Urgent Than Ever

By Sarah Lahm, The Progressive Magazine

When people living in the Upper Midwest lose their right to have an abortion, where will they go?

The reproductive health care landscape isn’t much better in Wisconsin, where abortions have also halted in the aftermath of the recent Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling, as an anti-abortion law from the nineteenth century was reinstated and is casting doubt on the future of abortion access in the state.

Abortions remain legal in Iowa for now, but that could change quickly. As Lina-Maria Murillo, assistant professor of gender, women’s, and sexuality studies at the University of Iowa, noted in a recent public radio interview, there is a twenty-four-hour waiting period for abortions in Iowa right now that will “likely turn into an all-out ban.”

As a result, many more patients in need of an abortion will likely be headed to Minnesota. It’s good that Minnesota will continue to be a refuge in this way, but this situation also raises some important questions. For instance, when these patients arrive, who will take care of their medical needs?

Currently, a key source of reproductive health care in the Upper Midwest comes from Planned Parenthood North Central States (PPNCS), an affiliate of the national Planned Parenthood organization.