“Our Reproductive Abilities Do Not Define Us” with Senator Sarah Eckhardt
It pleasantly surprised me when I reached out to Senator Sarah Eckhardt’s team for an interview and received an immediate reply followed by a confirmed date and time only a few emails later. However, as I followed the Senator and our very own Executive Director, Mia Johns, on a ground tour of the Dress for Success Austin office a couple weeks later, it made perfect sense.
The Senator moved thoughtfully through our space as Mia shared the mission and current efforts of DFSA. Her expressions conveyed a genuine fascination and care for the work we do. At the end of the tour, without missing a beat, she appeared to access an organized list of questions she mentally composed and stored over the course of the tour. It’s clear that Senator Eckhardt is concerned with one thing: helping her community.
For some background, Senator Eckhardt is an American attorney and member of the Texas Senate. From 2006-2013 she served as Travis County Commissioner, representing 300,000 people. From 2015-2020 she served as the Travis County Judge presiding over the Commissioners Court and representing 1.3 million people.
In our interview, we discussed the current status of Texas abortion law, how the law will affect women+ and the state economy at large, and what we can do as a community to support those affected. Our conversation has been edited and condensed.
Q: Senator Eckhardt, thank you for sitting down to have this conversation today. You took office as the Senator for District 14, representing Bastrop and Travis counties, in July 2020. Later that year, you had an uncomfortably close seat as we all watched the structure of the court shift to foreshadow impending changes to pivotal precedents.
As many know, on June 24th of this year, the supreme court overturned Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, two landmark cases protecting the reproductive rights of women+ everywhere. In the absence of these federal protections, state legislatures can now legally implement abortion bans with restrictions identical to versions agreed upon in 1857.
Because of this decision, many are in a state of unrest and confusion. Could you help us understand the timeline of Texas abortion law following the June 24th ruling?
SE: Well, what we are now seeing – I don't think that the average citizen understood how drastic and how rapid the change would come and how devastating it would be, economically and emotionally, to our families.
So, I think that describing it as a timeline may be a little inaccurate. It was a bombshell. Though we knew what was coming, when it hit, it was so immediate and overnight that if you were pregnant, you had no other option but to take that pregnancy to term. You could no longer decide whether or not, when, or with whom to have a child.
Q: You're referring to the trigger law making Texas one of fifteen states to prohibit abortion access in cases of rape and incest?
SE: Yes. This law means there is no way to avoid carrying a pregnancy to term other than complete abstinence and the good fortune of having no violent sexual encounter. It is your only choice. If you are a sexually active person during reproductive age, you have no autonomy over your body with regard to reproduction.
Q: You described this change as ‘a bombshell’. I think that emphasizes how varied the consequences of this ruling are. When discussing those consequences, you mentioned the economic impact. How do you believe recent changes to Texas abortion law will create barriers for women+ in their pursuit of functional financial independence?
SE: Sure. You know, the economic life of our community is still constructed predominantly for cis-gendered men and individuals who don't carry the unique biological and social functions that are normally attributed to women.
So, let's talk about the peaks and valleys of a woman's economic life. Pregnancy is a nine-month circumstance that will impact your ability to work. You may have a job and be able to continue working through your pregnancy, but what you can bring to that job is going to be different during that period. And unfortunately, the workforce in general, with or without the end of Roe v. Wade, is not hospitable to the changes and abilities of the pregnant employee.
We don't have good access to childcare, with or without Roe v. Wade. We don't have affordable access to elder care, with or without Roe v. Wade. Reliable quality public education is probably the greatest tool for emancipation we have ever experienced, yet we fund it poorly.
Meaningful participation in the economy is designed for an individual who can show up at a certain time, stay for a block of time reliably, and continue to climb that ladder consistently with no gaps.
Q: A report published by the institute for women's policy earlier this year, and before the June 24th ruling, corroborates your view that the state of the economy was already devolving. They found that states with anti-abortion measures, including Texas, cost the U.S. economy about 105 billion dollars annually. How are we seeing the economic impacts of even harsher anti-abortion measures materialize?
SE: We're already seeing politicians in our chambers of commerce single out various business entities for their forward thinking and attempts to mitigate what is happening in Texas. These businesses have put HR policies in place that allow employees who possess the female reproductive system to travel to get needed reproductive healthcare.
Because of this backlash, businesses will, if they have not already, express their difficulty recruiting people to Texas. They will have difficulty retaining the highest quality workforce because they're having difficulty accessing the talent of women and others at risk of becoming pregnant. We are going to see a massive brain drain from the state of Texas because of this.
You, me, everyone – our reproductive abilities do not define us. There is so much more to us than our ability to reproduce. And that fact is being sidelined by this law.
Q: This “brain drain” could exacerbate the already present labor shortage happening across the country. What can communities do to support companies that are trying to help?
SE: We need to encourage our community to identify the good actors and to stand by them when they receive pushback. That also means discussing with our employers, discussing with our families, and discussing with our communities how we can uniquely contribute to that support. And it comes in all different varieties.It might be purchasing goods from companies you know are positive forces in this space. It might be working for or looking to contract with those sorts of companies.
If politics is your jam, it might be making sure that you're scanning the papers and social media to know which politicians are supportive and which aren't, and then working really hard to get rid of politicians who are not supportive of reproductive choice. It's a difficult space to work in these days, but until we change leadership in Texas, this suppression of women+ in health education and economics will continue.
Q: We keep returning to the economic barriers facing women+ today. What are some ways we can work together to break down these barriers?
SE: For people specific to this circumstance and the community at large, building a tolerance for frustration is going to be important to stay in it no matter what.
So let's take a hypothetical: I'm Jane. I am in a job that is not a career, but it's still a job. The job is paying my rent. I have a lease, but the rent is still high. I don't want to move, because if I move, a new lease will be higher, so I will stick with this one for a while. I'm getting an associate's degree at ACC, so I'm working and going to school, and bam! I’m pregnant. Under the new regime, I'm sitting here going, “Do I tell my employer I'm pregnant? Maybe I don't. I don't want to lose this job.” Now, I'm scrolling through my phone, and I think, “Where do I get quality information about what options I have?”
We can do a better job helping Jane as a community by saying, “You have options! Here are some quality places you can go to receive information, and you may want to talk to your HR so that they know what's going on and you can engage some help.”
We need to gather our helpers. Jane, don't isolate yourself! Talk to trusted family and friends. Talk to HR. Build that support network. Because we're going to need to change what's happening in the state of Texas, and we can change it by building allies.
Q: A strong community is essential for anyone to thrive. What advice would you give to businesses, healthcare providers, and others who wish to support their communities?
SE: I ardently believe the court argued and decided Roe v. Wade on the correct remise, which was privacy. And where our friends and allies in the corporate community can help is by being very public about their HR policies while maintaining the HIPPA privacy of their employees. They can take the aggregate and make it public while the specific individual's privacy remains protected.
This law is unjust, and it is driving support underground for fear of prosecution because, under the law, the pregnant person is not prosecutable, but the doctor, the lawyer, family friend, or employer who helped the individual gain access to reproductive healthcare is. That is unjust. That is a form of suppression that mimics authoritarian regimes from history. So what I would say to individuals is: Don't be afraid of an unfair law. We've seen beautiful heroic examples in our backyard, communities of people who recognized an unjust law and then called it out and continued to do what was right. You know what's right. Don't be afraid.
We are in a pivotal moment in history, not far from the fight for gay marriage, the quest for civil rights during the 1960s, the suffragette movement in the early teens of the last century, or the abolition of slavery. We are in a pivotal moment, so don't be afraid to stand against an unjust law, whether you're an employer, a friend, a parent, or a doctor.
Q: Unfortunately, Texas laws have long fallen short of meeting Texans’ rights. Texas has no paid leave program and no state-sponsored alternative to the FMLA. How do you think these issues intersect with reproductive rights? What must we address first?
SE: Even laying aside issues for women and people with female reproductive systems, we don't even have mandatory worker's comp in Texas. I mean, that is just mind-blowing! We don't have mandatory worker's comp; therefore, we have the deadliest construction industry in the United States, so we suck for everyone.
We've got a long way to go. The obvious things are mandatory worker's compensation; paid family medical leave for everyone; access to affordable childcare and healthcare; and affordable housing, because without affordability and consistency in your housing, it's hard to build that nurturing environment in which your family can thrive. All of those are extremely important. The state of Texas does not allocate a single dime for affordable housing that's handled entirely at the local level.
Exciting things are happening at the local level for paid family and medical leave, though. Employers handle that themselves in the state of Texas. So, we must support employers at the leading edge of paid family and medical leave and like issues. It will also help to show statistically how employees and businesses are thriving because they have this level of flexibility.
Workplace flexibility has seen a real uptick because of COVID-19.Many companies were wary of flexible work schedules and telecommuting for work, but COVID changed that for the better. That's one good thing I can say about COVID. We saw how flexibility in the workplace can enhance the work contributions of people with children while allowing them to create a home and family in their personal lives.
Q: Would you agree that even if you are not at risk of reproducing, this reproductive rights issue is still “your issue”?
SE: I've often said to folks: If you don't think abortion is your issue because you can't get pregnant or you would never get an abortion if you did get pregnant, think again. The state of Texas has a terrible history of suppressing people's rights, so if the state can remove the right to reproductive healthcare, which rights will come next?
Ideologically, the state of Texas is fairly libertarian. We like our government to be effective and efficient. We want fair but not intrusive regulation. This level of intrusion is unprecedented in recent times. If the state is willing to intrude on this...
Q: …they're willing to intrude on anything. Some advice I’ve heard is that we should seek, cultivate and work with a community of like-spirited people in the face of our government's inaction. Have you had any experience working with communities like that before where you achieved change?
SE: Absolutely! Having worked in local government for twenty years before I went to state government, we did some innovative, wonderful things under the radar. For instance, we banned looking at criminal histories in our employment process until a person was among the top two candidates. Only then did we permit looking at criminal history to the extent it had any bearing on the job that the candidate was applying for. That was in Travis County under Judge Biscoe's leadership.
We also established domestic partnership benefits very early on. We didn't publicize it because we didn't want to draw attention to it, but our partner benefits have been in place for a couple of decades now. Pflugerville ISD was one of the first school districts to establish domestic partner benefits.
Q: That's inspiring, and I hope it will inspire readers as well. Given your diverse involvement in local causes, do you know of any resources for individuals who need childcare in order to pursue their education or advance in their careers?
SE: Sure! Both the city of Austin and Travis County work with the Workforce Solutions Capital Area to augment the federal pass-through dollars for childcare supplements. They can help connect you with childcare, so you can look for employment or enhance your employment and educational opportunities while working.
Q: What a wonderful resource. Senator Eckhardt, you have provided information today that will be very helpful to many people. Thank you so much for taking the time to be here. Before we wrap up, is there anything you want to leave with our readers?
SE: If you put this in an economic frame – for me, the most important frame is the civil rights aspect – but let's just put it in an economic frame for a moment. How healthy would your state be if you leave half of its population on the sidelines?
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