From Disney to Uber, dozens of companies will pay for their employees' abortion trips

More and more US companies are taking a stand when it comes to securities or, in this case, rights.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
28 June 2022 Tuesday 07:54
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From Disney to Uber, dozens of companies will pay for their employees' abortion trips

More and more US companies are taking a stand when it comes to securities or, in this case, rights. After the elimination of the right to abortion in the country on Friday, a growing number of large firms (for now there are fifty) have announced that they will pay the travel expenses of employees who have to travel to another state to have an abortion.

Amazon, Apple, Microsoft or JP Morgan -which had already reported their plans before the final ruling of the Supreme Court- was joined by others such as Airbnb, Bank of America, Disney, H

The high court's decision allowed 13 Republican-led states to enact laws restricting abortion, and a dozen more are expected to do so soon. Among them, Florida, from where Walt Disney – who has already shown his rejection of the new homophobic law promoted by the state that hosts his amusement park – quickly spoke out in favor of supporting the reproductive health of his employees, including pregnancy terminations. .

Condé Nast was also one of the first companies to take a stand when it informed its staff of its new travel reimbursement policy in a statement describing the Supreme Court ruling as "a crushing blow to reproductive rights." By contrast, Arkansas-based Walmart, the nation's largest employer with a good portion of its stores in states that will soon activate abortion bans, has not commented on the matter.

New policies by these companies have ignited the ire of Republican-led states, with some Republican Texas lawmakers already threatening Citigroup and Lyft with legal action. They are the same ones who have authored a series of abortion-related proposals, including a bill that prohibits firms from doing business with Texas if they pay for employees who reside in the state to travel for abortions.

In the Supreme Court ruling, conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh suggested that it would be unconstitutional for one state to bar its residents from traveling to another for an abortion. “In my view, the answer is not based on the constitutional right to interstate travel,” wrote the justice who nominated Donald Trump in 2018. But the right of a corporation to finance what would be an illegal act in another state can it can be questionable, argues Teresa Collett, a law professor at the University of Santo Tomás, to the Reuters agency.

Faced with possible legal obstacles, large companies are better covered than small ones because they tend to finance their employees' health insurance themselves. In principle, they are protected by the ERISA law (Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974), which shields corporate health plans from state laws. In 2021, 64% of American workers with employer-sponsored health insurance had these types of plans, called self-insured, according to the Kaiser Foundation.

But companies that have to purchase medical coverage for their workforce from an outside insurer, usually small firms, are subject to state law and not ERISA. These will have it more difficult to avoid possible demands. About a third of insured workers have this type of insurance.

Many of these companies have made public commitments to promote women in their workplaces. And those firms working in states with anti-abortion laws may now have trouble attracting female, college-educated talent. The executive director of the language learning app Duolingo, Luis von Ahn, complained about this when he sent a message to legislators in Pennsylvania, the company's headquarters and where it is currently legal to abort until week 24: "If Pennsylvania makes it illegal abortion, we will not be able to attract talent and will have to move our offices elsewhere,” he wrote on Twitter.

A large number of these companies oppose the Supreme Court ruling because their customers and employees expect it. And it is that lately in the United States the big firms are taking sides: "We are at this moment in which we expect corporate leaders to also be leaders in the political sphere," the professor at the Wharton Business School of the University of Pennsylvania Maurice Schweitze. “Many employees expect to work at companies that not only pay them well, but whose values ​​are aligned with theirs,” he adds.

However, it is a thorny terrain. Companies that position themselves will likely receive complaints. "Consumers and employees don't want companies to 'take part' in an issue unless they go their way," said Kimberly Whitler, who teaches marketing at the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business, to the New York Times newspaper. For this reason, it is possible that many companies avoid speaking out and focus on other less sticky topics.

But this also carries risks, says Schweitze. “They can support out-of-state travel for health care and risk lawsuits and the wrath of local politicians, or they can not include this coverage and risk the wrath of employees,” says the Pennsylvania professor.

However, women with low incomes, more precarious jobs and, therefore, worse medical coverage, are once again the worst affected. “As a direct result of this ruling, more women will be forced to choose between paying rent or traveling long distances to receive safe abortion services,” said Mary Kay Henry, the international president of the Service Employees International Union, an organization that represents to nearly two million people who work as house cleaners, health workers, janitors or teachers: “Working women are already struggling in low-paid, unpaid jobs, and many are taking on the responsibility of caring for their families , an unpaid task,” recalls Kay Henry. They just need to have to go to another state to get an abortion.