But a few employers want to enable employees to make their own choice on reproduction.
The latest to do so is Yelp.
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In September 2021, Texas changed its abortion law and made it illegal for women to seek to end a pregnancy once a fetal heartbeat is detected – this is normally at around six weeks.
Other US states are now also moving against abortions. Examples include Oklahoma, Arizona, and Mississippi.
In response, employers across the US are interfering to protect their workers from these pro-life and anti-abortion laws.
Back in September, ride-hailing firms Uber and Lyft announced they would pay the legal fees of any drivers sued under the new Texas law.
A quirk of Texas’s new so-called Heartbeat Law is that private citizens can bring legal proceedings against anyone deemed to be “aiding or abetting” abortions past the six-week mark and this includes anyone who drives them to the clinic.
On the topic of travelling for an abortion, the likes of Citigroup, Salesforce, and Apple decided to help their employees living in certain US states travel to exert their reproductive rights if so desired.
Apple announced its health insurance covers abortions, including travel expenses if needed.
In a March letter to shareholders, Citi wrote: “In response to changes in reproductive healthcare laws in certain states in the US, beginning in 2022 we provide travel benefits to facilitate access to adequate resources.”
While Salesforce wrote to employees: “We recognize and respect that we all have deeply held and different perspectives. As a company, we stand with all of our women at Salesforce and everywhere.”
“With that being said, if you have concerns about access to reproductive healthcare in your state, Salesforce will help relocate you and members of your immediate family.”
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff tweeted: (Ohana means family in Hawaiian)
And now reviews website Yelp has joined in offering to cover the travel of US employees (and their spouses) who need to go to another state to get an abortion. Yelp employs 4,000 workers (all in the US), and 200 of them live in Texas.
Inside Yelp’s decision
Talking about the decision, Yelp’s chief diversity officer Miriam Warren told the New York Times: “The ability to control your reproductive health, and whether or when you want to extend your family, is absolutely fundamental to being able to be successful in the workplace.”
Warren noted that the company was not concerned about backlash – a Texas governor had threatened Citigroup’s business on the back of the bank’s similar move.
Instead, she shared with the Times that she (and other Yelp) executives had received many messages of thanks from employees for the response.
For Warren and Yelp, the decision to enable employees to get an abortion even if they live in conservative, anti-abortion states is core to its diversity and inclusion priorities. It will also help Yelp to thrive in the ongoing war for talent, which has been dubbed the ‘Great Resignation’.
“We want to be able to recruit and retain employees wherever they might be living.
“The ability to control your reproductive health, and whether or when you want to extend your family, is absolutely fundamental to being able to be successful in the workplace,” added Warren.
Importantly to Yelp, employees will submit their abortion-related travel expenses directly to their health insurance provider.
“No one else at Yelp is ever going to know who is accessing this, or how or when, and it will be a reimbursement that comes through the insurance provider directly,” concluded Warren.
Will other employers follow suit?
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