This is part of a growing trend.
As much of the country still reels from the end of Roe v. Wade, a growing number of U.S. companies are taking action to ensure that employees are still able to get the care they need.
Walmart, which employees nearly 1.6 million people in the U.S, is the latest major corporate giant to jump on the bandwagon after remaining relatively quiet in wake of the Supreme Court’s consequential decision.
It joins a list of others, like Disney and Johnson & Johnson, offering reproductive healthcare benefits, including travel benefits for out-of-state abortions. Many of these companies have already been offering abortion support. JP Morgan says it has long covered abortions under its health plan, but in July, it starting expanding “this benefit to include all covered services that can only be obtained far from your home.”
So far, the procedure is already illegal in Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah and Kentucky, and more than a dozen others are expected to restrict them or ban them outright. That could explain why many business leaders are wasting no time in protecting abortion access for their employees.
“This ruling puts women’s health in jeopardy, denies them their human rights, and threatens to dismantle the progress we’ve made toward gender equality in the workplaces since Roe,” said Yelp co-founder Jeremy Stoppelman.
But this isn’t the first time companies have taken a stand: The trend first began after Texas enacted a ban on abortion after six weeks last year. In March, Citigroup announced that it would cover costs for employees, including airfare and lodging, who have to travel out of state for abortions.
Here are some prominent companies who were either already offering financial help, or just extended their coverage for employees traveling to other states for abortions.
- Citigroup
- Walmart
- Johnson & Johnson
- Apple
- Tesla
- Warner Brothers
- Starbucks
- Microsoft
- Disney
- Bank of America
- Netflix
- Nike
- Comcast-NBC Universal
- Yelp
- Airbnb
- Goldman Sachs
- Zillow
- Dicks Sporting Goods
- Alaska Airlines
- Levi Strauss
- Uber
- Bumble
- Lyft
- Salesforce
- H&M
