Just days after the Supreme Court's shocking reversal of Roe v. Wade on Friday, June 24, trigger laws across the country have been enacted, banning abortion in several states, often with no exceptions made for cases of rape or incest. People living in those states who need an abortion will have to travel to another state for care, and those who can't afford that sort of expense will be left with no safe options.
To fill that gap, big companies have been stepping up. Massive businesses ranging from Disney (NYSE: DIS) to JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM) have pledged to cover some part of the expenses of employees who need to travel to get abortions in states where the procedure remains legal and available.
While advocates for human rights and women's health have been quick to point out that employees shouldn't have to disclose to their employer when they need to have an abortion, access to some level of support could mean a big difference for some workers in need.
Even before the decision was official, companies began coming out in opposition to the Court's stance. Roughly two months before the Court officially reversed its position on Roe, the decision was leaked, and a wave of businesses came forward to announce their plans to support their employees in need of reproductive medical care.
At that time, companies pledging to cover some portion of their employees' abortion costs included Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), Airbnb (NASDAQ: ABNB), Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Citigroup (NYSE: C), DoorDash (NYSE: DASH), Levi Strauss (NYSE: LEVI), Lyft (NASDAQ: LYFT), Mastercard (NYSE: MA), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), PayPal (NASDAQ: PYPL), Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX), Reddit, Uber (NYSE: UBER), Yelp (NYSE: YELP), and Zillow (NASDAQ: ZG).
"Access to reproductive health care, including abortion, has been a critical factor to the workplace gains and contributions women have made over the past 50 years," Levi's said in a statement on May 4. "Further restricting or criminalizing access will jeopardize that progress and disproportionately affect women of color, putting their well-being at risk."
When the decision was made on June 24, another round of announcements and memos was released from companies also pledging to pay for some part of the cost of abortions for employees in states where abortion is now illegal.
The more recent wave of statements included Box (NYSE: BOX), BuzzFeed, Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA), Condé Nast, Dick's Sporting Goods (NYSE: DKS), Disney, Intuit (NASDAQ: INTU), Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), Meta (NASDAQ: META), Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX), Paramount (NYSE: PGRE), Patagonia, Sony (NYSE: SONY), and Warner Bros (NASDAQ: WBD).
"We recognize people feel passionately about this topic - and that there are teammates and athletes who will not agree with this decision," Dick's Sporting Goods wrote in a statement on Instagram.
"However, we also recognize that decisions involving health and families are deeply personal and made with thoughtful consideration," the sporting goods store's statement continues. "We are making this decision so our teammates can access the same health care options, regardless of where they live, and choose what is best for them."
Along with public statements, internal memos detailing companies' plans have also been released. At media giant Condé Nast, publisher of Vogue, New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and other major publications, CEO Roger Lynch wrote in a memo to employees that the Court's decision is a "crushing blow to reproductive rights."
Lynch wrote in the memo that the company would be enhancing its reproductive health care benefits but also went one step farther, urging Condé Nast's employees to use their platform and brands to spread information on this issue.
"The most powerful way for us to respond to what's happening right now is through our brands and the distinctive editorial lenses with which they're covering today's news and the effect it will have on society," Lynch wrote. "Our values are clear in the content and journalism we produce."