Companies across the country are expanding employee benefits after the Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, sweeping out the constitutional right to abortion.
Texas passed Senate Bill 8, otherwise known as the “heartbeat bill,” earlier this year. After a draft of a U.S. Supreme Court decision on abortion was made public last month, some companies responded by assuring employees working in Texas and other states with restrictive laws that they would still be able to obtain care.
Among those companies are JPMorgan Chase & Co., the largest U.S. bank. It employs nearly 14,600 in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area, and it has announced that it will pay for employees to travel to another state if needed to obtain a legal abortion. The benefit is effective beginning July 1.
Dallas-based Match Group set up a fund in October that continues to be available for Texas employees who need safe access to abortion care, through a partnership with Planned Parenthood in Los Angeles. The company is evaluating ways to expand the policy to all of its U.S. employees, including remote employees in trigger law states. Match’s health care plans cover travel and lodging costs for any employee who needs to travel out of state to receive care.
In May, California-based software company Salesforce announced that it will relocate employees worried about access to abortions or other medical procedures, according to CNBC. Salesforce has an office located on North Field Street with over 1,000 employees.
Businesses that speak out may be targeted by the Texas legislature, according to the Texas Tribune. Fourteen Republican members of the state House of Representatives have pledged to introduce bills in the coming legislative session that would keep corporations from doing business in Texas if the firms pay for out-of-state abortions.
Overturning Roe renders abortion illegal in nearly half the country. The current Texas law bans the procedure after about six weeks of pregnancy.
