After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade — the 1973 opinion which argued that the Constitution guarantees the right to an abortion — several businesses announced that they would bankroll employees’ travel to seek abortions in other states. In a news segment with CNN, the diversity czar of Yelp explained her company’s reasoning for a similar policy.
The online rating platform began offering workers and their dependents financial help for abortion-related travel in April, according to The Wall Street Journal. In reaction to last week’s ruling, Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman said that business leaders must speak out “against the wave of abortion bans that will be triggered as a result of this decision” and called on lawmakers to codify Roe.
Likewise, Yelp Chief Diversity Officer Miriam Warren told CNN, “For any employer that cares about issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion, to stay silent on such an issue is really just not okay.”
CNN correspondent Vanessa Yurkevich asked Warren, “Do you think it’s both an asset for retention of employees, then also an asset for attracting new employees to the company?”
“I think it’s both,” she responded. “It has really been a wonderful recruiting tool in terms of prospective employees saying, ‘I want to work at a company that is out there and loud about what they believe in, and what they care about.’”
Even beyond the human rights implications of Yelp’s policy, an exclusive Daily Wire poll conducted by Echelon Insights showed last month that most Americans want companies they invest in to refrain from pushing social agendas. While 29% of respondents agreed it is a “good thing” for companies to leverage their power for political ends supported by executives, 58% — twice as many — said it is a “bad thing.”
Nevertheless, many of America’s leading corporations denounced the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe — which occurred through the Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization — and clarified their support of employees’ interstate travel to obtain abortions.
“Our company remains committed to removing barriers and providing comprehensive access to quality and affordable care for all of our employees, cast members and their families, including family planning and reproductive care, no matter where they live,” Disney executives Paul Richardson and Pascale Thomas said in a memo.
“We have processes in place so that an employee who may be unable to access care in one location has affordable coverage for receiving similar levels of care in another location,” the executives continued. “This travel benefit covers medical situations related to cancer treatments, transplants, rare disease treatment and family planning (including pregnancy-related decisions).”
“In response to today’s ruling, we are announcing that if a state one of our teammates lives in restricts access to abortion, DICK’S Sporting Goods will provide up to $4,000 in travel expense reimbursement to travel to the nearest location where that care is legally available,” DICK’S Sporting Goods CEO Lauren Hobart said. “This benefit will be provided to any teammate, spouse or dependent enrolled in our medical plan, along with one support person.”
The wave of businesses announcing they would reimburse for abortion-related travel expenses began in May after Politico published Justice Samuel Alito’s draft Dobbs opinion. Companies such as Levi Strauss, Amazon, and Citigroup released such policies the days after the leak.