Guaranteeing employees’ access to care is likely to become even more fraught – and expensive
After a US Supreme Court ruling in 2022 ended federal abortion rights, hundreds of major US companies reaffirmed commitments to fund employees’ travel for access to reproductive health services curtailed by state bans.
So what? They may not be so vocal this time around. Trump hasn’t expressed a consistent view on a nationwide abortion ban, preferring instead to say it is a matter for individual states. But a better-than-anticipated turnout for Trump among women, coupled with a likely sweep of Congress for the GOP, has made further restrictions more likely.
Companies that shore up support for employee abortion rights face the potential threat of
- attracting Republican anger given the party’s long war on “woke” work policies under Biden just received electoral approval;
- higher benefit costs for employees as state bans proliferate and distances needed to get abortion care lengthen potentially as far as Mexico and Canada; and
- lawsuits if they help employees access abortion pills illegally via mail.
Got you covered. According to data compiled by Rhia Ventures
- 163 companies with more than 500 staff across the US provide some form of coverage for abortion-related travel;
- 104 have made statements affirming employee abortion access; and
- 15 offer paid time off for abortion-related travel and recovery.
A typical policy covers employee access to reproductive care within 100 miles of their location and between $5,000 to $10,000 in travel expenses. The question now is how far companies are willing to go to continue to defend that freedom.
Silent treatment. When asked whether they expected to expand coverage for employees in light of Trump’s win, household names including Goldman Sachs, H&M and Wells Fargo declined to comment or provide details of current provisions. Fourteen other firms chose not to respond at all.
A spokesperson for Patagonia referred Tortoise to its existing policies, saying they were “in place for many years and are not a reaction to the election result”. The company goes further than most by offering abortion-associated mental health expenses and bail, if necessary, for those who peacefully protest for reproductive justice.
What next under Trump 2.0? On Wednesday Aid Access, the primary supplier of abortion pills by mail in the US, received 5,000 requests for pills in less than 12 hours – a bigger surge than the day after Roe v Wade was overturned. Women’s health providers have also seen an increase in sales of emergency contraception.
“The threats to medication abortion is what we’re going to be watching most closely, especially in the first months and year of his administration,” says Amy Friedrich-Karnik, director for federal policy at the Guttmacher Institute.
Experts say that threat could come in the form of stricter enforcement of the Comstock Act – a dormant law from 1837 that, in its most literal interpretation, could forbid sending “obscene” instruments of abortion or contraception through the mail. Currently the law is bypassed by orders from the FDA and DoJ. As executive, Trump could feasibly repeal those once in office.
Allies attack. Trump’s ambivalence on abortion was a political calculation that appears to have paid off. His allies are more forthright.
- In 2022, Mike Johnson and more than 40 other House members signed a letter calling for Citibank to be stripped of its role providing credit cards to the US government after it offered to pay flight and accommodation costs for staff seeking abortions. Citi declined to comment.
- Elon Musk has stopped short of calling for a national ban, but said “if a baby can survive outside the womb, it is not abortion, it is murder”. Tesla, his company, offered to pay travel costs for staff seeking abortion services in 2022 but did not respond to Tortoise requests to reaffirm its commitment.
What’s more… On Tuesday voters in seven states approved ballot amendments establishing or protecting a right to abortion in their state constitutions. Expect firms to think carefully about operating in the three that didn’t: Nebraska, Florida, South Dakota.
