by Marc Little
The cynicism of so-called “woke” corporate executives is breathtaking. Their latest pet project – financing and facilitating abortions for their employees – should leave no doubt about their true motivations.
In the wake of the Supreme Court’s recent ruling overturning Roe v Wade and returning abortion policy back to the states, dozens of companies have publicly committed to help their employees procure abortions out of state if the state in which they reside bans or restricts the procedure.
Starbucks, Tesla, Yelp, Airbnb, Microsoft, Netflix, Patagonia, DoorDash, JPMorgan Chase, Levi Strauss, PayPal, Amazon, Reddit, Walt Disney Company, Meta, and Dick’s Sporting Goods have all pledged to cover the cost of travel for pregnant employees who wish to procure abortions.
These companies are bragging about their new policies in an effort to capitalize on the politics of the moment, sending a signal to progressive-minded employees (and customers and shareholders) that they are on the so-called “right side of history.” They want people to think they’re doing this because of some high-minded ideals.
But people aren’t that stupid. The real reason these companies are offering to help finance and facilitate abortions for their employees is simple: naked self-interest.
Put simply, it’s costly for a company when an employee has a child. Often, companies will offer some amount of parental leave – over one-third of large firms in the United States do so, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. This means that every time an employee gives birth, these firms are paying their salaries for at least a few weeks, and in some cases for several months, during which time the employee is not actually working.
On average, mothers take between 10 and 12 weeks off following the birth or adoption of a child. Even if a company is not providing paid leave for the entirety of that time, the loss of a worker for such a long period of time is inevitably disruptive to a business.
Following a surgical abortion, on the other hand, most women are able to resume normal activities in just one or two days. A company could fly their employee out of state for an abortion on a Friday and expect them back on Monday – and all it would cost them is the price of a short business trip.
It’s frankly a bit sickening to go through such callous logic, but that’s exactly the calculation “woke” corporate executives are making all over the country.
These companies want their employees and customers to think of them as “pro-choice,” but that’s not really the case. They’re offering a specific financial incentive for employees to make a particular kind of choice – a choice that saves the company money and/or spares the company the inconvenience of having a worker take extended leave.
Consider that Elon Musk was among the first high-profile corporate leaders to offer company-financed reimbursement for abortion-related travel. Around the same time, Musk was also threatening to fire employees unless they returned to the office, fretting that he wasn’t getting enough effort out of employees who were working remotely.
A much better way for companies to support their female employees would be with more generous parental and family leave policies. Offering 12 or more weeks of paid leave – and perhaps even a modest cash bonus – to employees who have a baby would impose an up-front cost, but it would also send a strong signal that the company values the employees who make it work.
Offering more meaningful support for parents would also be tremendously helpful to pregnant employees who are considering abortion because they worry they won’t be able financially withstand giving birth. Instead of telling these employees that they can either get an abortion on the company dime or figure out how to make ends meet while foregoing their salary for several weeks or months, companies would be helping their employees make a choice that offers immense benefits to themselves, the company, and society.
In the long run, companies are actually better off encouraging their employees to have children than helping them to have abortions. Studies have shown that parents are better employees — they have more patience and empathy, broader perspectives, better time management skills, and many other positive attributes compared to non-parents. These benefits far outweigh the surface-level costs such as the need for more scheduling flexibility.
Unfortunately, many corporate executives are hopelessly trapped in a short-term mindset. They find it much easier to conceptualize the short-term costs associated with their employees having children than the long-term benefits. So when they’re presented with a hot-button political issue such as abortion rights, they eagerly exploit the false “opportunity” of using “pro-choice” rhetoric to justify a cold-hearted approach that they incorrectly believe will save their businesses a few bucks.
These so-called “woke” corporations want people to think that they care about supporting women. But if that were the case, they would be finding ways to support their female employees who choose to have children, rather than taking the easy way out by encouraging them to have abortions.
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Marc Little is a pastor, Concerned Communities for America Board Member and the executive director for CURE America Action, Inc.
