STATEMENT: Protect Abortion Rights for All: Fight Supreme Court's Attack on Reproductive Health

Student Workers Must Take Action to Defend Access to Reproductive Healthcare

UGSDW is fully committed to the right of all people to receive reproductive healthcare and to have access to confidential, effective, free birth control and abortion on demand without apology.

We promise to fight for an abortion fund for student workers in our upcoming contract negotiations. We call on Grinnell College to take immediate and material action to ensure its students, employees and community members have full access to reproductive health care. We demand Grinnell College fully fund the Student Health Information Center (SHIC), including access to Plan B and expanded STI testing as the first step in this effort.

Libby Eggert, a SHIC student worker and UGSDW member, said “the biggest problem Grinnell is facing re: reproductive health is access to actual healthcare. We don’t have regular STI testing, a productive way to get birth control, and least of all abortion. SHIC could be a touchpoint for all these services if we had funding.”

Nazma Noray, another SHIC student worker and UGSDW member, said the College recently stopped funding SHIC to pay for generic Plan B. The institutions have failed, so she knew we had to stand together and rely on one another. Alongside other SHIC student workers, Noray is collecting funds to pay for students’ Plan B independently from the College.

You can Venmo @Nazma-Noray to contribute to the fund.

Today’s Supreme Court decision represents one of many reactionary attacks on the rights of working people and all Americans.

We cannot rely on the legal system or politicians to protect our livelihoods or our rights. We must stand up together to protect and fight for ourselves and build a militant social movement that confronts those threatening our lives and guarantees healthcare as an undeniable human right. The time to act is now.