The decision, which is expected to lead to abortion bans in roughly half of U.S. states, has sparked Hollywood companies to assure employees about healthcare coverage: “We want to be very clear about what will not change.”
The decision, which is expected to lead to abortion bans in roughly half of U.S. states, has sparked companies including Disney, Netflix, Comcast, Paramount, WME, CAA and UTA to communicate with employees about their healthcare policies.
For full-time U.S. employees, Netflix said it offers a $10,000 lifetime allowance for travel reimbursement for cancer treatment, transplants, gender affirming care, or abortion. Disney has told employees that a benefit for those who may be unable to access care in their location covers travel to another location, including for pregnancy-related decisions.
Companies have been preparing for the decision since the leak of a draft opinion by Justice Samuel Alito last month indicating the court was prepared to take the dramatic step of overturning Roe.
In May, UTA CEO Jeremy Zimmer emailed employees announcing that the agency, which opened a new headquarters in Tennessee last year, will reimburse for travel expenses “related to receiving women’s reproductive health services that are not accessible in their state of residence.” Tennessee is one of the states where lawmakers have signaled their intent to restrict access to the procedure. “As threats against women’s reproductive rights grow, we’re introducing an important new benefit,” Zimmer wrote. “We’re doing this to support the right to choose that has been a bedrock of settled law for almost half a century.”
While companies have long considered abortion a hot-button issue when it comes to public relations, abortion rights are important to employees. A majority of Americans favored preserving Roe, according to opinion polls, and a Morning Consult poll found that by a two-to-one margin, employed adults would prefer to live in a state where abortion is legal.
