Quite a few large American companies are offering their staff support because of possible stricter abortion laws. They offer to reimburse travel expenses if people have to travel to another state in the United States for an abortion or say they will pay bail for employees arrested during protests against a Supreme Court ruling Friday.
Due to the ruling, it is no longer an automatic right in the entire US to have an abortion. States can now legislate on this themselves. Some states will prohibit abortion entirely or only allow abortion in cases involving rape, incest or endangering the mother’s life.
Companies such as Apple, Facebook parent Meta Platforms, Disney and the banks JP Morgan, Goldman and Bank of America have now indicated that they will continue to reimburse travel to other states for a medical procedure or have indicated that they will add abortion as a medical procedure to that. provision. The large companies often have employees in all kinds of American states, which now all have different rules.
Outdoor brand Patagonia and concert organizer Live Nation are going one step further and also want to pay bail for staff who are arrested during demonstrations for the right to abortion. The taxi apps Uber and Lyft have previously indicated that they will pay legal costs for drivers in Texas if they are charged for transporting pregnant women to an abortion clinic. A Texas law made it a crime to assist in having an abortion. Other states would also like to introduce such laws.
Google even offers employees in states where abortion is banned that they can move to another location of the company. Software company Salesforce had previously said it would help workers and their families move out of Texas because of the very strict abortion laws in that southern state.
At the same time, the Supreme Court ruling, even though it had been expected for some time due to a leak, is causing tension within companies. Several companies such as Amazon and Apple have urged their employees to be respectful after internal communications were used to discuss the ruling. Just like in the rest of the US, there are also pros and cons of abortion within those companies. At Meta Platforms, managers were once again reminded that major social issues should not be discussed on the company’s internal channels.