In Dialogue: Alexis McGill Johnson On The Future Of Reproductive Rights

Once upon a time, abortion was “settled law;” now, Roe v. Wade is on the precipice of being overturned entirely.

This column has long sought to draw attention to the myriad ways women face workplace discrimination, and chief among those has been pregnancy discrimination, the pre-emptive decision not to hire or promote a woman who is or may soon become pregnant, which can take as little as wearing a wedding ring or even just an offhand mention of a boyfriend. Now, at a time when millions of women are still struggling to recover lost careers, abortion bans seem poised to sweep over vast swathes of the United States, which not only makes women less likely to build a successful career (as both the perception and reality of potential pregnancy sinks in), but could presage the overturning of further critical bodily autonomy and privacy rights precedents, including Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized gay marriage nationwide.