Over the years, Planned Parenthood has been a cultural lightning rod: a symbol of feminist resistance and a bogeyman for antichoice activists. But to us as workers, Planned Parenthood is an employer. It’s a job most of us sought out because we believe deeply in the mission of providing sexual and reproductive health services — including abortion care — to Marylanders, including members of our greater Baltimore community, but it is also a job like any other, one that most of us need to support ourselves and our families.
Right now, Planned Parenthood of Maryland needs to bargain openly and honestly with its 80-plus unionized workers, including clinical and administrative staff across eight Maryland clinics, if the organization wants to prioritize worker retention and patient safety.
When the Supreme Court decided in its 2022 ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that individual states had the right to enact abortion bans, all eyes turned to Planned Parenthood. That August, Planned Parenthood of Maryland published a report stating that clinics in our state had already seen a 20% increase in abortion visits, largely because individuals from out of state were seeking care in a blue state. In addition, we have seen significant attacks on gender-affirming care across the country. Throughout, Planned Parenthood of Maryland and its staff have remained committed to providing care for all who need it.
As workers who are here to support this mission, we are fighting alongside our employer to increase access to services for those in our communities. However, the only way to actually provide these services is by attracting and retaining a team of dedicated, well-trained, and knowledgeable workers. Despite increased demands on staff, working conditions have deteriorated. While taking on additional patients, the organization’s staffing has been in turmoil. Low wages, poor morale, and a lack of voice in decisions that impact our work have led to constant turnover. Many of our lowest-paid staff find themselves working two or more jobs to support themselves and their families. This turnover impacts our ability to care for those who need us most.
In August 2025, we joined together and voted to join 1199SEIU, a healthcare union representing over 10,000 workers in the region. We joined a union not only as a way to get better wages but also as a mechanism to reclaim our power and demand a voice in the decisions that impact our working conditions and the care of our patients, as many other Planned Parenthood affiliates across the country have done. We hoped Planned Parenthood of Maryland would meet us at the bargaining table and prioritize a fair contract with the expedience it deserves.
Unfortunately, since bargaining started, we have been consistently stonewalled by management. Bargaining in good faith as an employer means engaging seriously with worker proposals and providing reasonable counters, but that is not what we have seen from our employer. This leads us to believe that the organization is not serious about working with us to secure a good contract in a reasonable amount of time.
As employees of Planned Parenthood of Maryland, we are the workers managing the clinics’ day-to-day operations, interacting with patients, and providing vital healthcare services. If you are not serious about respecting your employees, you are also not treating your mission with the seriousness it deserves. As workers, it seems to us that the organization is relying on the knowledge that we are passionate, mission-driven individuals to justify giving us less than we deserve. Respect and dignity must be given equally to staff and those who come to us for care.
If we are on the frontlines of this movement, feminist heroes to some and antichoice bogeymen to others, then we need respect and the protection of a union contract. We are asking management to engage seriously with our efforts to secure a collective bargaining agreement as soon as possible, both for our benefit and for the community at large: individuals who need STI testing, cancer screening, gender-affirming care, and abortions.
The Planned Parenthood of Maryland bargaining committee is in the process of negotiating the eight clinics’ first contract. Members include registered nurses, nurse midwives, nurse practitioners, and administrative workers. Planned Parenthood clinicians provide services such as STI testing, cancer screenings, gender affirming care, abortions, and more.