Yelp To Pay For Employees’ Travel Costs If They Need To Go Out Of State For Abortions
As more and more states begin to ban abortion, those who need the service will be forced to travel out of state.
Review app Yelp is not with the restrictions on women’s rights and has agreed to pay for employees’ travel costs if they need to go out of state to receive an abortion.
Yelp’s health insurance already covered abortion needs, but starting next month it will also begin to cover the costs of those who need to travel out of state to access these services, along with their dependents.
“We’ve long been a strong advocate for equality in the workplace, and believe that gender equality cannot be achieved if women’s healthcare rights are restricted,” Yelp’s Chief Diversity Officer Miriam Warren said in a statement per CBS News. “As a remote-first company with a distributed workforce, this new benefit allows our U.S. employees and their dependents to have equitable access to reproductive care, regardless of where they live.”
Oklahoma joins other states in making abortion illegal
As we reported, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt on Tuesday signed a bill into law that makes it a felony to perform an abortion. If someone is found guilty of performing an abortion, they could face ten years in prison. The state will only allow abortion if the mother needs it for life-saving measures.
I’m not sure the country is prepared for what is about to happen at the end of June.
When SCOTUS overrules Roe – or eviscerates Roe – (one of those two things is going to happen), there is going to be a slew of restrictive abortion laws going into effect/waiting in the wings. https://t.co/fQzrk7Htjl
— Leah Litman (@LeahLitman) April 12, 2022
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New laws on abortion have also recently been brought into law in Texas, Arizona, South Dakota, and Idaho.
Other companies ally against the abortion ban
Numerous other companies have also added new policies to help employees if they are faced with abortion worse. For example, Salesforce CEO Mark Beinoff said his company will aid employees to relocate from Texas if they need to following Governor Greg Abbott’s new imposed laws on abortion.
Citi, which has around 8,500 employees in Texas, will also cover expenses, including flights and hotels, for employees located in states like Texas who must travel to receive an abortion per Bloomberg. Apple, which also has a huge presence of employees in Texas has also said its health insurance provider will cover travel and medical costs for employees to get an abortion.
Gov. Bet O’Rourke is against the bans
These extreme abortion laws are not about life. They are about control.
As governor, I will trust women to make their own decisions about their own bodies. pic.twitter.com/34w161QXsH
— Beto O’Rourke (@BetoORourke) April 13, 2022
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis also signed into law on Thursday an anti-abortion law that bans the procedure after 15 weeks of pregnancy, and there are no exemptions for rape, incest, or human trafficking! It is set to go into into effect on July 1.