Abstract
The global climate crisis is the single biggest health threat facing humanity. The climate crisis’s threat to health is most dire for those who are particularly vulnerable, or “populations of concern.” Pregnant people are one population of concern, as their life stage make them particularly vulnerable to adverse pregnancy and newborn health outcomes. Pregnant people who work in occupations that have a greater risk of exposure to climate impacts, such as outdoor and agricultural workers, are even more at risk. Without workplace protections, these pregnant workers may face extreme heat and air pollution that put their pregnancies at risk for miscarriage, low birthweight, preterm birth, and stillbirth, and they also risk potential exposure to climate-related biological hazards that are more dangerous for pregnant people, such as Zika virus, Lyme disease, and Valley fever. This Article provides the first scholarly treatment of this issue. In examining the implications of the climate crisis for pregnant workers in the United States, the Article begins with necessary context on the preexisting poor outlook for pregnant people and pregnant workers in this country. Maternal health indicators in the U.S. have long been among the worst within developed countries globally and are getting worse, and meanwhile, the U.S. law and policy regime pulls pregnant people into the workforce but until recently did not provide them with the right to accommodations that would mitigate workplace health risks. Climate crisis–driven health threats from extreme heat, air pollution, and vector-borne disease will amplify those preexisting risks for U.S. pregnant people and pregnant workers. Thankfully, with the recent passage of the federal Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, soon most U.S. pregnant workers will have the right to workplace accommodations that allow them to mitigate climate crisis–driven health threats at work. This important intervention provides a solid foundation for what remains to be done: awareness raising, enforcement of pregnancy accommodations laws, legislative gap-filling, and policymaking to address long-term underpinnings of both the U.S.’s poor maternal health trends and the climate crisis.