On Friday, the United States Supreme Court overturned the 50-year old Roe v. Wade ruling which granted women the constitutional right to abortion. The court passed the baton on to state leadership to decide whether or not to allow abortion to take place in their respective states. Preliminary data suggests that over twenty states are likely to either outlaw abortion or heavily restrict access to the procedure over the next few weeks. This would mean that women who wish to have an abortion will have to travel across multiple state borders to be able to legally undergo the procedure.
A wave of support came from tech executives including Susan Wojicki (CEO Youtube), Bill Gates (co-founder Microsoft), Marc Benioff (CEO Salesforce), and Sheryl Sandberg (outgoing Meta COO) as they expressed their disappointment over the decision on social media. Google, Uber, Disney, Apple, Meta, Netflix and many more tech companies have joined other industries to offer financial support to female employees who might need to relocate to get abortions. Bumble and Lyft also announced that they will be donating to women’s advocacy groups in an effort to uphold women’s rights.
While this support comes as a huge relief to employees, it remains to be seen how quickly they will be able to avail these benefits.
The following sources were used for the article:
- Here are the states set to ban or severely limit abortion access now that Roe v. Wade is overturned, CNBC
- Tech leaders react to Roe v. Wade reversal, CNBC
These US companies will cover travel costs for employees who need an abortion, CNN