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The Street
The Street
Business
Tony Owusu

Amazon Adds New Employee Benefit Following SCOTUS Draft Leak

The reverberations from Monday night's Supreme Court bombshell report from Politico are just beginning to be felt in corporate America as well as main street America. 

With the U.S. Supreme Court expected to strike down Roe v. Wade, the court case precedent that legalized abortion rights in this country nearly 50 years ago, some big companies have begun to take action. 

Companies have been preparing their responses at least since last September when Texas' abortion restriction law, SB 8, was signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott.

By March, numerous companies including Apple (AAPL), Citigroup (C), Lyft (LYFT), Uber (UBER), Match (MTCH) and others had started reimbursement programs 

Companies from a range of different industries signed a statement last year in opposition to SB8, which outlaws abortions as early as six weeks.

"Restricting access to comprehensive reproductive care, including abortion, threatens the health, independence, and economic stability of our workers and customers," the statement read

The Institute for Women's Policy Research estimates economic losses from existing abortion restrictions, including labor force impact and earnings, already cost state economies across the nation about $105 billion annually.

That number will only balloon now that Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts has confirmed that the leaked draft opinion that Politico published is indeed real. 

Amazon Joins Group Offering Medical Reimbursement

The majority of people saw this day coming following oral arguments in the case which occurred in December last year. 

"Nobody should be surprised by the conclusion, it was obvious on December 1 when this case was argued that there were five votes on the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade," NBC's Pete Williams said Tuesday.

Today is the day Amazon decided to follow other companies in offering employee reimbursements, according to a report in Reuters.  

Amazon did not immediately return a request for comment, but according to Reuters, the company did confirm the report that it will reimburse employees for up to $4,000 in travel expenses for any medical treatments that can't be obtained within 100 miles of that employees home. 

Amazon emailed employees news of the benefits change Tuesday morning, according to Reuters. 

About 1 out of 153 American workers is an Amazon employee. 

The draft opinion suggests that states will be able to decide abortion laws for themselves, so only a fraction of Amazon's 1.1. million strong headcount will be eligible for the reimbursement. 

Last year, Amazon had 70,000 workers in Texas and another 52,000 in Republican controlled Florida, according to GeekWire

Virginia has 27,000 Amazon employees, and the company recently chose Arlington as the location for its HQ2. Virginia elected a Republican governor last November. 

North Carolina has the same number of employees as Virginia while Tennessee, Alabama and Indiana all have at least 20,000 Amazon employees. 

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