Giant companies support the "right of choice" to support abortion as a new workplace benefit?

The U.S. Supreme Court overturned the historic ruling of Roe v. Wade last Friday (June 24), ending the decades-long constitutional guarantee of the right to abortion. It will also force many companies to respond to this.

Earlier last month, e-commerce giant Amazon announced that it would pay up to $4,000 a year for travel expenses for medical care, including abortion.

The decision makes it the second company to respond to Republican-backed state laws restricting access to abortion, following Citigroup Inc., review site Yelp and others.

Similar measures covering abortion benefits may become a basic benefit in the American workplace in the future.

It is understood that Amazon's compensation plan is not specific to abortion, and the company also provides other non-life-threatening treatments, such as heart disease, cell gene therapy and substance use disorder services.

In addition, the company offers travel reimbursement of up to $10,000 per year for life-threatening matters.

The new benefit, which takes effect retroactively from January 1 this year, applies to travel expenses for employees who need to travel for certain treatments that cannot be obtained within about 161 kilometers of their residence or cannot be accessed online. treatment program.

As one of the nation's largest private-sector employers, Amazon employs about 1.1 million full- and part-time workers nationwide, mostly in California, Texas and Washington state, home to the company's global headquarters.

The above benefits will cover employees working in an office or warehouse.

E-commerce giant Amazon has announced that it will pay up to $4,000 a year for travel expenses for medical care, including abortion.

(Getty Images)

In addition to Amazon, Tesla, Citigroup, dating app Bumble, Levi Strauss, Lyft, Starbucks, etc. also have similar benefits...

For details, please read the 323rd issue of "Hong Kong 01" Electronic Weekly Newsletter (June 27, 2022) "