Connection Between Abortion and Economic Justice

Today's guest hosts are Brent J. Cohen and Charlotte Hancock, Executive Director and Communications Director for Generation Progress.

They discuss the intersection between two core issues impacting women and people who can become pregnant—abortion bans and economic injustice. At Generation Progress, they apply a reproductive justice framework (a term coined by a group of Black women in 1994) to all of the issues that they work on, understanding that the freedom to decide if, when, and how to have children is inextricably linked to issues like climate change, criminal justice reform, and immigration. Recently, their team has been working on a campaign to illustrate the connections between the need for access to abortion to the need to end the student debt crisis, both of which disproportionately impact women.

Over the past year in the U.S., as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Americans have experienced an economic recession that has hit women and people of color the hardest. Adding that on top of the student debt crisis, which also disproportionately impacts women and people of color, and an uptick in attempts to restrict or deny access to abortion—it’s clear that reproductive and economic freedom are in jeopardy for women and people who can become pregnant.

To talk with Brent and Charlotte about the intersection between reproductive freedom and economic stability further, they’re joined by two expert guests. They are Ravina Daphtary, the abortion coverage campaign co-director at All* Above All, and Robin Bleiweis, a research associate focused on women’s economic security at the Center for American Progress.

Generation Progress' website is GenProgress.org and their Twitter handle is @GenProgress.  Brent's Twitter handle is @BrentJCohen and Charlotte Hancock's handle is @CharlatAnne.  The Twitter handle for All* Above All is @AllAboveAll and the handle for the Center for American Progress Women’s Initiative is @CAPWomen.