Companies fill the void as states restrict abortion rights

The shaky leak of a Supreme Court draft annulment of the right to abortion could encourage more companies to quietly subsidize employees who need to travel for the procedure,

“There’s still a lot of stigma surrounding abortion; it’s not something employees feel comfortable demanding from their employers,” said Alina Salganicoff, senior vice president and director of women’s health policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation. , on CBS MoneyWatch. “Some may make the decision to do so but not announce it,” he added to cover travel costs and related costs for employees with no options nearby.

The initial opinion, signed by Judge Samuel Alito and published by Politico on Monday afternoon, was circulated among judges in February and is still subject to change. He indicated that the majority of judges voted to revoke Roe v. Wade, the historic 1973 ruling legalizing a woman’s choice to have an abortion.

Twenty-six states are “safe or likely” to ban abortion if Supreme Court judges invalidate Roe v. Wade, which means many would have to travel long distances to get the procedure, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a think tank that studies sexuality. and reproductive health and rights. The scenario is already at stake in some parts of the country.

Texas it now bans most abortions after six weeks, effectively banning it from the state. According to the organization, the number of residents who traveled for abortions to nearby Planned Parenthood centers increased after the law went into effect in September 2021.

“In the first four months that this law went into effect, we saw an 800% increase in Texas people going to neighboring states and getting the care they needed; so this is really a crisis situation.” Dr. Bhavik Kumar of Planned. Parenthood Center for Choice in Houston said in a March 1 statement.

The Supreme Court’s position on abortion rights could increase pressure on companies, some of which have recently moved to reduce potential barriers to employees in need of reproductive health care.

That said, it’s unclear how many companies cover the cost of about $ 600 of a first-class abortion, according to Salganicoff. Kaiser asked companies in 2019 if they had specifically asked their insurer to exclude abortion coverage, and about 10% said they had asked.

There are 11 states that ban abortion coverage in state-regulated plans, but the ban does not apply to self-funded plans, he noted.

Citigroup, for example, added the travel advantage to their job offers after several states enacted restrictive reproductive health care laws. “In response to changes in reproductive health care laws in certain U.S. states, from 2022 we offer travel benefits to facilitate access to adequate resources,” the bank said in a regulatory filing on 15 March.

Amazon on Monday told its U.S. workers it would reimburse up to $ 4,000 in travel costs for medical procedures, including abortions.

“Amazon has extended the benefit of travel and accommodation to cover travel for a number of non-life-threatening conditions if a provider is not available 100 miles from an employee’s home,” an Amazon spokesman said. to CBS MoneyWatch in an Email. The policy is retroactive to Jan. 1 for employees and their dependents, Reuters reported.

Citi and Amazon’s new policies are similar to those of other companies, such as Apple, Bumble, Levi’s and Hewlett Packard, which help cover travel expenses for medical procedures that are not available in their home state. a worker.

Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, said in September that the company would help employees who wanted to leave Texas because of state abortion restrictions. And Dallas-based Match Group CEO Shar Dubey set up a fund to help any of the company’s Texas workers who may need to travel out of state for the procedure.

“It’s not clear how jobseekers will respond to offers that force them to move to restrictive states, even with the offer to pay for travel to abortion care; there has been no Great research on the subject and “great resignation” suggests that workers are more attuned to quality of life issues than in the past, “she sent an email to Danielle Bessett, an associate professor of sociology at Concinnati University. .

“States with the highest number of abortion restrictions tend to have the worst health outcomes for women and children; they also have fewer policies that would advance the health and well-being of families,” Bessett wrote, citing a research by Ibis Reproductive Health and the Center. for Reproductive Rights.