The New York-based investment banking and financial services giant is providing the same benefit for workers in other states that, like Texas, have passed laws restricting abortion, Society for Human Resource Management reports.
Human resources departments potentially faced huge headaches with last year’s passage of Texas’ abortion law and the likelihood that the fallout wouldn’t be limited to just one state. Texas Senate Bill 8 empowers private citizens to bring civil lawsuits tied to women who seek abortions in the state after a pregnancy goes past six weeks. It prohibits abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected, which can be as soon as six weeks into a pregnancy and would even apply in rape and incest cases, Fortune reports.
Other states following Texas with their own restrictive abortion measures include Idaho, Missouri, Ohio and Oklahoma, among others, Fortune reports.
Citigroup, in a March proxy filing, noted that “in response to changes in reproductive healthcare laws in certain states in the U.S., beginning in 2022 we provide travel benefits to facilitate access to adequate resources.” Citigroup would not comment beyond its proxy, CNN Business reports.
Following Citigroup's disclosure, Apple and Levi Strauss were among other large companies that have stated their health plans would pay for employees to travel out of state if they face restrictive abortion laws where they live and work.
Last year, Austin-headquartered Bumble said it would provide its employees and their dependents with financial help should they need to leave Texas for care, Fortune reports. Match Group CEO Shar Dubey also noted last year that her Dallas-based firm would take similar action. The CEOs of Citigroup, Match and Bumble are women.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise also now offers reproductive-care benefits for employees if they work in a state that imposes abortion restrictions, Bloomberg reports.
While it is not unusual for most health insurance plans to cover the costs of abortions, employers now have to decide if they will go further to help employees in states with restrictive measures and to potentially fight legal actions by those states that try to stop them. Reimbursing employees for travel-related costs to get an abortion is the “low bar,” Laura Spiekerman, co-founder of New York-based startup Alloy, told Bloomberg News.
She noted that companies need to do more. “I’m surprised and disappointed more companies aren’t doing it,” Spiekerman said.
Alloy in January noted it would pay up to $1,500 to employees for travel expenses they incur from traveling out of their state for abortions. The company also promised to cover half of legal expenses, up to $5,000, for employees or their partners who are legally challenged.
About 12 states now prohibit state-regulated private plans, which are often tapped by small employers, from including support for abortion, the Kaiser Family Foundation finds. Companies representing about 10% of employees under employer-sponsored health insurance plans have requested their insurer to remove abortion from their respective plans.
While Texas has become a huge draw for companies, as only one of six states that don’t charge corporate income tax, more businesses will face pressure to act on behalf of their workers.
The question facing more companies is whether they will support policies similar to Citigroup or come out in defense of reproductive rights for their workers should the U.S. Supreme overturn Roe v Wade, Leila Abolfazli, director of reproductive rights at the National Women's Law Center, tells Axios.