‘It’s a sexist and racist attack’: Trump’s regulation to weaken home health care unions takes effect

Adarra Benjamin earns $13.48 an hour as a home health worker — a wage that includes a 48-cent-per hour raise thanks to her union, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Healthcare Illinois.

Benjamin, who’s 25 years old and lives in Chicago, also received $1,200 in backpay this year after Illinois agreed to the raises back in 2017. She was one of more than 49,000 employees statewide to receive this long-overdue backpay.

“After becoming a member… I...

States that passed ‘heartbeat’ bans spent thousands on abortion test cases after losing in court

Before Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio made headlines for passing extreme near-total abortion bans, Arkansas and North Dakota did the same years prior.

Advocacy groups immediately sued when Arkansas and North Dakota passed so-called heartbeat laws in 2013. By the end of the years-long legal battles, both states spent thousands of dollars defending these bans after losing in federal courts. Altogether, officials told ThinkProgress the states spe...