Dozens of businesses “are going public with their opposition to a new Texas law that bars abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy,” The Wall Street Journal reported this week. A statement signed by those dozens of companies and slated for release on Tuesday insisted that “restricting access to comprehensive reproductive care, including abortion, threatens the health, independence, and economic stability of our workers and customers.”
Businesses are pushing back on Texas' abortion ban:
Lyft, Yelp and Patagonia are among the companies that've signed a statement that says "restricting access to comprehensive reproductive care, including abortion, threatens … our workers and customers."https://t.co/0NJ54WjKNt
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) September 22, 2021
The law was already challenged at the U.S. Supreme Court, but for now, that court allowed the law to remain in effect. Besides the ban on most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy, the Texas law also allows for lawsuits from private citizens against individuals suspected of involvement in the procurement of an illegal abortion. Should such lawsuits be successful, then those who brought them are entitled to at least $10,000 apiece, which essentially establishes a bounty system in the state targeting those who may assist pregnant people with the exercise of their reproductive rights.
The Journal notes that, according to organizers of the new corporate statement, the effort “is intended, in part, to show other states considering new abortion laws that they can cause economic harm, such as by hindering employers’ ability to recruit workers from out of state.” Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott recently insisted that business activity in Texas isn’t threatened by the law, but such a claim doesn’t exactly reflect reality. If a state suddenly bans a major method of reproductive health care, then what exactly are people who may become pregnant supposed to do? Companies who signed onto the new statement against Texas’s anti-abortion law include the ride-sharing company Lyft, the cloud storage company Box, and the online dating company Bumble.
The new corporate statement insists that the Texas law “impairs our ability to build diverse and inclusive workforce pipelines, recruit top talent across states, and protect the well-being of all the people who keep our businesses thriving day in and out.” Jen Stark, who works as a senior director of corporate strategy for the Tara Health Foundation and whose company helped put the new corporate statement together, pointedly observed that “laws like these are just bad for the business climate of the state.” Read more at this link.
