Starbucks, PayPal, MasterCard and PayPal are just a few of the companies that have indicated they will pay for employees who travel to get abortions.
“We will continue offering employees access to the exact same health care that’s available today wherever it is,” a MasterCard spokesperson stated in an email. This was in response to a Bloomberg News report.
This includes family planning and reproductive benefits, including fertility treatments to surrogacy, adoption services, pregnancy prevention, vasectomy coverage, and access to contraception, as well as access to abortion and termination,” Purchase, New York-based MasterCard informed employees in a memo cited Bloomberg.
MasterCard’s new policy on abortion travel takes effect next month.
PayPal decided to reimburse employees for travel expenses to obtain abortions after Texas Supreme Court upheld a law that prohibits abortion after a fetal beat can be detected. This can occur within six weeks of a woman’s pregnancy.
In a memo dated May 9, Kausik Rajgopal (EVP, Chief Human Resources Officer at PayPal), stated that “we communicated directly to Texas employees about our commitment for providing equitable health care benefits.”
PayPal was prompted by the recently leaked draft U.S. Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade to prepare for possible outcomes. It will “extend this support” to any state where legislation after the court’s ruling leads to decreased healthcare access with regard to reproductive health, Rajgopal said.
Starbucks, a Seattle-based company, is expanding its medical insurance to employees to cover transportation costs for employees and their dependents.
After restrictive laws were passed in several states, many companies, including Amazon, Apple and Citigroup, Microsoft, said that they would reimburse employees who have abortions in another state. The U.S. Supreme Court could rule against Roe v. Wade and force additional companies to reimburse their employees.
Sara Kelly, Starbucks’ acting executive Vice President for Employee Resources, stated in a blog post, “Like many others, I am deeply concerned about the draft Supreme Court opinion regarding the constitutional right to abort”
The company provides health insurance to 240,000 employees at its U.S. locations, but it declined to disclose how many are enrolled.
Starbucks stated that the expanded coverage would be extended to workers in stores that have voted or are in process of unionizing. Starbucks increased wages and training in its corporate-owned stores earlier this month, but not at more then 50 locations that were recently unionized or where votes are being considered.
