If you wrote a dystopian thriller about a world where multibillion-dollar corporations subsidize abortion to keep female employees on the clock and avoid paying increased insurance premiums, a good editor would send it back and say, “This is too on the nose.”
As they say, though, real life is stranger than fiction.
In the hours following the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which returned to the states the legal authority to ban abortion, more than 50 U.S. companies updated their “family planning” policies to include abortion stipends and reimbursements for abortion-related travel.
Dick’s Sporting Goods, for example, said it will pay as much as $4,000 in abortion travel expenses “to the nearest location where [abortion] care is legally available” for employees and their families.
“We recognize people feel passionately about this topic — and that there are teammates and athletes who will not agree with this decision,” said CEO Lauren Hobart.
She added, “However, we also recognize that decisions involving health and families are deeply personal and made with thoughtful consideration. We are making this decision so our teammates can access the same healthcare options, regardless of where they live, and choose what is best for them.”
Asked by Breitbart News whether the $4,000 benefit would be made available to pregnant workers who don’t want to get an abortion, Dick’s declined to answer.
Elsewhere, Disney announced in a statement, “We have communicated directly with our employees today that we recognize the impact of the ruling and that we remain committed to 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.”
Amazon likewise updated its benefits plan to include “up to $4,000 in travel expenses annually for non-life-threatening medical treatments including abortions,” according to Reuters.
Chalk it up to cynicism, but these new policies seem less an act of benevolence, and more an act of corporate opportunism of the most grotesque sort.
Think of the savings!
Disney, a genocide apologist for communist China, and Amazon, which runs a network of sweatshops in the United States, are too big, too cutthroat, and too profit-focused not to see the financial upshot of encouraging female employees to abort their children. Fewer expectant mothers in the workplace is excellent news if you’re a multibillion-dollar corporation on a tight work schedule. (Who needs maternity and paternity leave anyway?) Also, fewer expectant mothers profits the company insofar as healthcare benefits are concerned. (Who wants to shell out for dependents anyway?)
Never mind all that. We’re supposed to pretend as these financial incentives never occurred to Amazon and Disney. Roe v. Wade has been overturned. They’re simply resisting!
At Amazon, we’re family. Now, get back to work! There are no bathroom breaks at the Amazon hub.
Amazon, Dick’s, and Disney aren’t the only companies that have responded to the court’s decision in a manner that just so happens to benefit their respective bottom lines. A whole mess of corporations have jumped on the wagon. As of this writing, this is the complete list of U.S. businesses that say they’ll sponsor abortion tourism for employees (via the Washington Stand):
- Accenture
- Adidas
- Adobe
- AirBnb
- Alaska Airlines
- Amazon
- American Express
- Apple
- AT&T
- Bank of America
- Box.com
- Bumble
- Buzzfeed
- Chobani
- Citigroup
- Comcast
- Conde Nast
- Dick’s Sporting Goods
- Disney
- DoorDash
- Duolingo
- Goldman Sachs
- GrubHub
- Gucci
- Hewlett-Packard
- H&M
- HPE
- Intuit
- Johnson & Johnson
- JP Morgan
- Kroger’s
- Levi Strauss
- LiveNation
- Lyft
- Macy’s
- Mastercard
- Match Group
- Meta
- Microsoft
- Netflix
- Nike
- OK Cupid
- Paramount
- Patagonia
- PayPal
- Salesforce
- Sony
- Starbucks
- Tesla
- Uber
- Vox Media
- Warner Bros.
- Yelp
- Zillow
It’s darker than anything presented in any recent dystopian fiction: a world in which corporations leverage infanticide to the “accidental” benefit of their profit margins.
These “family planning” policy updates also put pro-life consumers in a remarkably uncomfortable position, something far beyond the days of companies merely donating to Planned Parenthood, the nation’s top provider of abortions. Doing business with a company that sponsors abortion tourism isn’t like, say, buying a coffee at Starbucks, knowing full well the group donates a portion of its proceeds to Planned Parenthood. When Starbucks donates to Planned Parenthood, the cash you paid for your coffee doesn’t necessarily subsidize abortion services directly. Some of that money goes toward management, advertising, etc.
But these “family planning” benefits go well beyond a simple donation to Planned Parenthood. The stipends and reimbursements go toward abortion and abortion-related travel expenses specifically, meaning abortions will be subsidized directly by some of the cash you give to Amazon, Disney, and others. Those reimbursement checks have to come from somewhere.
Where once there was a sort of gray area — who is to say Starbucks’s donations to Planned Parenthood directly fund abortion services? — there is no longer that wiggle room. If you pay to see a Disney movie or buy a baseball glove at Dick’s, some of that money will be used to fund abortion services, not administrative needs or advertising. Abortion.
What pro-life consumers need to ask themselves now is this: Is that Pixar movie really worth it? Maybe take your children elsewhere so that another child may live to see that Pixar movie himself.
Becket Adams is the program director of the National Journalism Center.
