The Impacts of Further Abortion Restrictions on Work: The Role of I-O Psychology

Recently, the role of abortion access in the workplace and the field of I-O psychology has been highlighted, but little published research explicitly tackles the impacts of abortion care from an organizational psychology perspective. We examine the potential impacts of further restrictions on abortion access within the context of people’s relationships with employment and workplaces. We focus our discussion on three significant mechanisms that may further restrict access to abortion depending on the degree to which they are enforced or enacted: restriction of abortion medication and equipment shipping, limiting federal funding for organizations that facilitate abortion access, and fetal personhood laws. Further restriction of abortion access may create significant challenges for organizational decision-makers, employees, and healthcare workers. Together, these changes to the experience of work necessitate shifts in research and practice within the field of I-O psychology. I-O researchers and practitioners must work together to facilitate organizational functioning and employee wellbeing through these changes by becoming and staying informed about organizational benefit policies and reproductive care-related practices and their impact on employees, employee career trajectories and distress related to unwanted pregnancy, and moral injury and other challenges faced by healthcare workers.