Following the announcement that the Supreme Court had overturned Roe v. Wade, some major companies, hearing the cry for “reproductive rights,” decided to pay for their employees (and in some cases, employees’ family members) to travel to have an abortion.
Chapter 19 of the Texas Penal Code, which prohibits homicide, did not apply to the death of an unborn child in a “lawful medical procedure,” which it was following Roe v. Wade in 1973.
However, since Roe v. Wade has been overturned (and no pre-Roe statutes were repealed), abortion is no longer a lawful medical procedure in the state and is illegal.
Additionally, the Texas Legislature passed a “trigger” law last year to ban all abortions 30 days after the U.S. Supreme Court ruling, which will go into effect July 24.
However, many in Texas and across the nation still believe that killing an unborn child is a right that should be protected—and many companies agree. Many speculate this is large due to the fact that paying for an abortion is cheaper than paying for maternity leave.
Amazon, CVS, Disney, Netflix, and Starbucks are among the ultra-successful companies that have announced their intention to pay for abortions for their employees.
Meanwhile, Texans are being forced to pay millions of dollars to some of these companies.
Corporations such as Apple and Microsoft receive millions from the Texas Enterprise Fund, a fund of taxpayer cash that the governor, lieutenant governor, and speaker of the House dole out to their handpicked businesses. In total, Apple has received $25 million, while Microsoft raked in nearly $4.9 million.
Others—such as Tesla, Amazon, Meta (Facebook), Google, and Goldman Sachs—also receive millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded tax breaks.
In response, conservative legislators have considered proposing legislation barring companies that pay their employees’ abortion-related costs from conducting business in Texas.
It is only a matter of time before these companies face lawsuits claiming their abortion-related payments violate Texas bans on facilitating or aiding abortions.
A list of major companies that pay for their employees’ abortion travel outside of Texas can be found below:
- Accenture
- Alaska Airlines
- Amazon
- Bank of America
- Box.com
- Bumble
- Bungie
- Buzzfeed
- CNN
- Comcast
- Conde Nast
- CVS Health
- Dicks Sporting Goods
- Disney
- DoorDash
- GoDaddy
- Gucci
- HP
- IKEA
- Intuit
- JP Morgan
- Kroger
- Levi Strauss
- Lyft
- Meta (Facebook)
- Microsoft
- Netflix
- New York Times
- Nike
- Paramount
- Patagonia
- PayPal
- Salesforce
- Starbucks
- Target
- Tesla
- Uber
- United Talent Agency
- Warner Bros. Discovery
- Yahoo
- Yelp
- Zillow