{"id":267704,"date":"2022-05-09T14:46:37","date_gmt":"2022-05-09T19:46:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=267704"},"modified":"2022-05-09T00:05:09","modified_gmt":"2022-05-09T05:05:09","slug":"companies-promise-funding-abortion-travel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/companies-promise-funding-abortion-travel\/","title":{"rendered":"More companies promise funding for abortion travel, including Tesla"},"content":{"rendered":"
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As abortion advocates continue their wild frenzy over the likelihood that the Supreme Court will overturn Roe v. Wade<\/em>, more companies are joining the push to pay for their employees’ abortion travel expenses.<\/p>\n

Recently, Amazon<\/a>, Citigroup<\/a>, and\u00a0Yelp<\/a>\u00a0announced that they would all cover fees for employees traveling out of state for an abortion. Now, United Talent Agency (UTA), Levi Strauss, and Tesla have all joined that list.<\/p>\n

Perhaps most surprising in the list of abortion-supporting companies is Tesla, run by Elon Musk. Musk has previously made statements saying he believes that low birth rates are one of the biggest threats<\/a>\u00a0to civilization, yet according to Business Insider<\/a>, his company started paying for its employees to receive out-of-state abortions in 2021. In a report released Friday, the company revealed<\/a> that it expanded its benefits program to include \u201ctravel and lodging support for those who may need to seek healthcare services that are unavailable in their home state.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement earlier this week, UTA CEO Jerry Zimmer wrote<\/a>,\u00a0\u201cWe\u2019re doing this to support the right to choose that has been a bedrock of settled law for almost half a century. Several states have already introduced restrictive legislation, and the draft Supreme Court ruling leaked yesterday, if it comes to pass, could make abortion illegal in more than half of the country.\u201d UTA is one of Hollywood’s leading talent agencies.<\/p>\n

Around the same time, the apparel company Levi Strauss also made its own announcement<\/a>.\u00a0“Given what is at stake, business leaders need to make their voices heard and act to protect the health and well-being of our employees, and that means protecting reproductive rights,” the company said.<\/p>\n

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In its announcement, Levi Strauss claims that without abortion, there would be “far-reaching consequences for the American workforce” and “it would jeopardize workplace gains women have made over the past 50 years.” This thinly-veiled statement seems to indicate a preference to continue paying for its employees’ abortions, because abortion is cheaper than paying for family leave or health care. Without the ability to kill their preborn children, women might have to take off more time from work \u2014 and that’s bad for business.<\/p>\n