Dozens of major U.S. companies are updating employee health insurance plans to include travel reimbursement benefits in the wake of last week’s Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
The court’s decision, which puts the regulatory responsibility of abortions under the purview of individual states, has left a legal patchwork across the country in its wake.
How are businesses reacting to the ruling? Numerous major companies came forward Friday to say they would cover employee travel expenses for abortions, according to The New York Times.
Those companies include Warner Bros., Condé Nast, BuzzFeed, Vox Media, Goldman Sachs, Snap, Macy’s, Intuit and Dick’s Sporting Goods. They joined a group including Starbucks, Tesla, Yelp, Airbnb, Netflix, Patagonia, DoorDash, JPMorgan Chase, Levi Strauss & Co., PayPal, OKCupid, Citigroup, Kroger, Google, Microsoft, Paramount, Nike, Chobani, Lyft and Reddit that had previously enacted similar policies.
The Walt Disney Co. unveiled its own travel cost reimbursement policy on Friday, per Reuters, telling employees that it recognizes the impact of the abortion ruling but remains committed to providing comprehensive access to quality health care, according to a spokesman.
Per CNBC, Google sent a companywide email Friday about the ruling, explaining employees in affected states can apply for relocation without explaining why.
“This is a profound change for the country that deeply affects so many of us, especially women,” wrote Google Chief People Officer Fiona Cicconi in an email to workers, viewed by CNBC. “Googlers can also apply for relocation without justification, and those overseeing this process will be aware of the situation.”
Sound of silence: While a host of major U.S. employers took action on Friday, The New York Times reports many companies that have spoken out on social issues like racism did not respond to requests for comment or declined to comment after the Supreme Court’s decision.
Companies including Target, Walmart, Coca-Cola, Delta and Wendy’s. Hobby Lobby, which in 2014 brought a successful suit to the Supreme Court challenging whether employer-provided health care had to include contraception, declined to comment on the Dobbs decision.
In recent years there has been a growing expectation that companies weigh in on political and social issues, per the Times. The share of online American adults who believe that companies have a responsibility to participate in debates about current issues has risen in the past year, according to the consumer research company Forrester.
The expectation is even more pronounced among younger social media users, according to research from Sprout Social.
Lawsuits on the way? It is likely only a matter of time before companies face lawsuits from states or anti-abortion campaigners claiming that abortion-related payments violate state bans on facilitating or aiding and abetting abortions, according to Robin Fretwell Wilson, a law professor at the University of Illinois and expert on health care law, per Reuters.
“If you can sue me as a person for carrying your daughter across state lines, you can sue Amazon for paying for it,” Wilson said.
For many large companies that fund their own health plans, the federal law regulating employee benefits will provide crucial cover in civil lawsuits over their reimbursement policies, several lawyers and other legal experts said.
The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 prohibits states from adopting requirements that “relate to” employer-sponsored health plans. Courts have for decades interpreted that language to bar state laws that dictate what health plans can and cannot cover.
But, according to Reuters, the act cannot prevent states from enforcing criminal laws, such as those in several states that make it a crime to aid and abet abortion, so employers who adopt reimbursement policies are vulnerable to criminal charges from state and local prosecutors.
Mixed messaging: While many U.S. companies took action either before, or immediately following, the expected reversal of Roe v. Wade, at least of a handful of those businesses appear to be active on both sides of the abortion debate.
TechCrunch notes that many companies — even those publicly supporting abortion rights or offering benefits to that effect — have donated to campaigns advocating for abortion restrictions.
As Salon recently reported, Citigroup has given over $6.2 million to the Republican Party and nearly half a million to various GOP candidates in Texas alone. JPMorgan donated more than $100,000 to sponsors of abortion bans. Yelp, Uber and Lyft have also contributed tens of thousand of dollars combined to anti-abortion lawmakers over the last few years.