Levi Strauss and Co. is the latest corporation to announce that it will reimburse travel expenses for some employees who receive abortions.
Levi’s, as the popular jeans company is commonly known, announced on Wednesday that “business leaders need to make their voices heard and act to protect the health and well-being of our employees. That means protecting reproductive rights.”
“Under our current benefits plan, Levi Strauss & Co. employees are eligible for reimbursement for healthcare-related travel expenses for services not available in their home state, including those related to reproductive health care and abortion,” the company said in a press release.
The company also announced that it will soon extend that part of the benefits package to part-time workers, so they too can be reimbursed for getting an abortion.
The announcement came just days after Politico reported on a leaked opinion draft from the Supreme Court of the United States that revealed the Supreme Court appears to be poised to overturn Roe v. Wade and send the issue of abortion back to the states.
Levi’s also claimed further that “restricting or criminalizing access will jeopardize that progress and disproportionately affect women of color, putting their well-being at risk and impeding diverse hiring pipelines. Women in some states would have fewer rights than women in others, and our country would be consigned to a more unjust and inequitable future.”
If Roe were overturned, abortion would still be legal in the U.S., but different states may have different restrictions.
The company also explained that changing abortion laws in the U.S. could cause difficulty for the company’s internal benefits package.
“What’s more, companies would need different health policies for different locations – including coverage for time off and travel across state lines – to ensure employees can access reproductive health care,” Levi’s said.
The news comes as Amazon, the e-commerce giant, also announced that it would fund abortion tourism by paying up to $4,000 in travel expenses for employees who want to go out of state to get an abortion.
The announcement was made at a staff meeting on Monday, and includes a variety of medically related travel expenses as well as allowing abortions as qualified travel expenses.
In reaction to that story, American Principles Project President Terry Schilling told The Daily Wire that he was not surprised by the move.
“It’s sadly no surprise to see Amazon assisting in efforts to circumvent pro-life laws,” he said. “After all, they have been doing the woke Left’s bidding for years — from banning conservative books on their platform to partnering with the notoriously partisan Southern Poverty Law Center to block donations to right-leaning groups, among other activities.”
“Conservatives by now should be thinking twice before doing business with Amazon, and at the very least, Republican leaders should stop providing any special benefits to a company that is clearly working against the interests of American families,” he added.
It should be noted that this isn’t the first time that Levi’s has waded into the culture war. In the past, the company has also bragged about using The Levi Strauss Foundation to support pro-abortion causes around the globe.