Nicole Froio and Jade Jasmine Hurley for Prism
Unionized workers of the National Abortion Hotline initiated a 24-hour unfair labor practice (ULP) strike on May 26 over AI implementation disputes with the National Abortion Federation (NAF), which houses the hotline. Contract negotiations that began last October had come to a halt, union members of the Washington-Baltimore News Guild Local 32035 told Prism, as NAF leadership refused to include “bare minimum” worker protections against AI implementation.
AI has been a point of contention since the beginning of contract negotiations, said Jen, a spokesperson for the NAH Union who declined to share her real name due to safety concerns amid the national anti-abortion climate.
“We are asking that management to agree to bargain with us over the implementation and effects of any AI that would result in layoff of staff on the hotline,” Jen said, adding that the contract would be valid for three years. “They have repeatedly said it’s not their intention to lay off staff and replace them with AI, but won’t agree to language like that written in our contract.”
Besides the possibility of workers being replaced, NAH Union members are also concerned about how implementation of any AI systems would impact people seeking abortions through the hotline.
“We truly believe that replacing patient-facing staff with AI would be incredibly unhelpful and most acutely impact the most marginalized people that we serve,” Amber Pugh, another spokesperson for the NAH Union and a hotline case manager, said.
But unionized workers do not feel that their concerns have been heard, as NAF “refused to come back to the table” in April, according to Jen. Jen said she thought that the union had made a good-faith effort.
“From our initial position to where we are now,” Jen said, “we have really made significant movement.”
Jen added that in May, NAF leadership emailed a “final offer” on the AI issue, which she said had never been presented at the bargaining table: two positions for union representatives on the AI taskforce it created and limiting bargaining discussions to how AI could affect layoffs, rather than the broader ethical concerns workers wanted to raise.
According to Jen, there are already two union reps in the AI taskforce, but those positions do not allow the union to bargain on the issues workers are concerned about.
“From what we have experienced so far, those two reps have no real decisional power,” she said. “And [leadership] is only talking about how to use AI; they’re not really talking about the ethical questions behind it or the privacy issues with patients or things like that.”
The proposal was rejected by the union. “Management was still refusing to come back to the table, so that’s when we filed the ULP,” Jen said.
In an emailed statement, NAF disagreed with the union’s characterization of both “parties’ bargaining history,” adding that leadership hopes to continue to “bargain in good faith.”
“As part of our broader work to strengthen the Hotline amid the most hostile environment for abortion access in decades, NAF is evaluating how technology can help improve access, reduce barriers for patients, and support—not replace—the people who provide compassionate, high-quality assistance every day,” the statement said. “We are committed to reaching a fair agreement with the Union that ensures any changes are implemented thoughtfully, transparently, and in service of patients, staff, and the long-term stability of the Hotline.”
But union members dispute that NAF leadership has been transparent about how it will use AI. According to Jen, leadership has not been explicit about what systems would be implemented, what their role would be, and what the effects would be on patients.
“The CEO and president said that they intend to use AI to leverage efficiencies, whatever that means,” she said. “But there’s no details about the timeline, or what program they would be using, or how we would deal with patient security and privacy, which is a huge deal.”
Jen accused leadership of neglecting to listen to staff, who speak to abortion-seekers everyday. Workers have also complained about poor compensation and working conditions at NAF since 2018.
Prism asked NAF about the leadership’s plans for using AI at the hotline but did not receive a statement by the time of publication.
Abortion funds in solidarity with workers
According to an email obtained by Prism, NAF announced the ULP strike to partnered abortion funds shortly after it began. It offered partners alternate contacts from NAF’s regional network and apologized for the “inconvenience.” But some workers from the two largest abortion funds in the country—Chicago Abortion Fund and ARC Southeast—say they support the NAH union strike.
“I am standing in full solidarity of the NAH Union Strike because this struggle is my struggle,” said Eva Dickerson, a worker at ARC Southeast, in a statement to Prism. “At a time when the people behind AI are already using surveillance technology to harm, humiliate, criminalize, and punish abortion seekers, the NAH Union Strike is taking a bold step in resisting to hand over the precious data of abortion seekers at one of the most vulnerable times in their lives.” On June 1, ARC Southeast announced a round of layoffs and restructuring.
Workers at both funds who spoke to Prism did not see the strike as impacting their abortion funding work. The workers questioned systemic issues within NAF and how funding is distributed to pay workers and fund abortions as the organization is gearing up to implement AI systems.
In 2024, NAF decided to reduce its abortion funding from 50% to 30% of an abortion-seeker’s total cost—a monumental reduction in service, which placed an additional burden on more than 100 local abortion funds in the U.S.
“What’s impacted our work is that huge funding cut, and the way that’s increased [the number of calls we receive] and the amount of money we send per pledge,” said Dahlia, a member of the Chicago Abortion Fund Union who spoke with Prism using a pseudonym due to fear of retribution.
Another member of the Chicago Abortion Fund Union, Violet, who is also using a pseudonym, considers the NAH strike a point of momentum for labor organizing in the abortion access movement.
“More abortion workers and funds should be unionized,” they said. “It calls to attention that, at most funds, it’s not that nobody’s being paid well. It’s that the executive director is making exponentially more than the people completing the calls and doing the case management.”
Dahlia and Violet stressed their solidarity with the NAH union workers and the need for improved working conditions among abortion funds like NAF.
“In order for abortion-seekers to have the full scope of support,” said Violet, “[abortion funds] also need to invest in and ensure that abortion workers have livable, thrive-able wages and can continue to do the work.”
Strike raises ethical questions
The NAH Union strike raises ethical questions about the use of AI by abortion providers across the country. There’s limited research on the use of the technology by abortion-seekers, though abortion fund workers and academics have raised concerns about misinformation and privacy of patients during a time where pregnancy is being increasingly criminalized. The work of abortion hotline workers is too nuanced to be done by AI chatbots, according to Jen.
“So many people are just happy to get to talk to a live person when they call us,” she said.
“From our experience, both in previous contracts and this contract bargaining, [NAF leadership] don’t truly have a full understanding of the scope of the work that we do,” Pugh said.
Pugh and Jen cited increasing barriers to abortion that an AI system might get wrong—a problem already prevalent in abortion chatbots that do not use generative AI.
Workers across funds also fear the introduction of AI due to threats to their own privacy, especially as the Trump administration and the federal law enforcement vilify and track their work.
“A lot of our union members also have concerns around being able to be found easily via Google or predictive AI,” said Violet of Chicago Abortion Fund Union.
Dickerson of ARC-Southeast believes that’s precisely the point. “The expansion of AI has nothing to do with efficiency and cost saving, but has everything to do about tracking our movements, learning our patterns, and using our most intimate data against us,” they said.
Additionally, Dahlia of the Chicago Abortion Fund Union is concerned about the ideological thrust of AI and technology more broadly, which has been historically anti-abortion.
“How can we do this work and not cave to these algorithms that just want all discussions of abortion to be wiped, while also protecting ourselves from the risk there?” Dahlia said.
Union workers hope NAF leadership will come back to the bargaining table to negotiate AI implementation as soon as possible, Pugh said.
“We want to prevent people not having any human connection in a process that is very, very human and very difficult for a lot of people,” she said. “We want [leadership] to come back to the table, and we want them to take this seriously.”
Editorial Team:
Sahar Fatima, Lead Editor
Lara Witt, Top Editor
Rashmee Kumar, Copy Editor
Nicole Froio is a writer and researcher currently based in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. She has a doctorate in Women’s Studies from the University of York. She writes about gender in pop culture, social movements, digital cultures and many other topics.
Jade Jasmine Hurley is a writer and abortion fund worker currently based in Chicago, Illinois. Jade holds a Master’s Degree in Creative Writing and Gender & Sexuality Studies from the University of Chicago, and helps high-traffic abortion funds wield their voice and find their audience. She writes and records histories from deep within the reproductive justice movement, often covering issues of femininity, whiteness, and transnational feminist politics.
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