Corporations Cut Benefits to New Parents as They Increase Abortion Benefits

 

In the wake of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health decision, which returned abortion policy back to the states, we saw a rash of corporations pledging to pay for abortion-related travel for employees. Some companies even offered to pay to relocate employees out of states that have pledged to restrict abortion.

While it’s easy to view the move toward adding abortion benefits as a way for these corporations to cater to woke employees and customers, some critics have pointed out that these companies are also signaling that they don’t want their employees to take time off to have children.

“Under the guise of expanding ‘health care’ policies to better accommodate women, big businesses all over the nation are going to great and murderous lengths to ensure they don’t have to deal with pregnant employees and maternity leave,” wrote Jordan Boyd at The Federalist in June. “The approach exposes how corporations evaluate women’s worth and working potential based on the state of their wombs.”

It’s not enough that companies are going out of their way to add abortion benefits to their packages, but many corporations are also cutting maternity and paternity leave. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week that many of these same employers who have gone whole-hog on abortion care were cutting parental benefits even before the COVID-19 pandemic.

“In the two years leading up to 2020 when the pandemic hit, many companies were contending with hiring shortages and rolled out enriched perks, including more time off, as a way to lure new talent,” explain reporters Kathryn Dill and Angela Yang.

They go on to point out that “some employers are shrinking the amount of paid leave they offer new parents to the legally required minimums, which can range from nothing to eight or 12 weeks, depending on the region.”

While the vast majority of states — 39 in total — don’t require paid leave for new parents, federal law allows a new mother or father to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave. And some corporations, including those who are crowing about their abortion benefits, are cutting their leave for new parents, some to the bare minimum.

Dill and Yang tell the story of Devon Richey, an employee at Hulu, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Company, one of the most notorious companies to tout its abortion travel benefits. Richey and his wife have talked about having children, but Hulu is cutting its paid parental leave from 20 weeks to eight.

The much shorter leave time means that Richey and his wife would have to begin paying for expensive childcare for their baby much sooner than they had planned under the old benefits package.

“If my job is cutting back on my parental leave, how am I going to afford child care if I don’t get paid more?” he told the Wall Street Journal.

These moves to cut parental leave while adding abortion travel benefits demonstrate that these corporations prioritize those who kill their babies over those who give birth to them. On top of that, these policies are sexist; a woman can opt for parental leave or abortion care, but a man can only get the leave if his wife has the baby — and he gets less than he did before, at that.

None of this should surprise us since large companies are growing increasingly woke and making left turn after left turn. Here’s hoping that some other companies, even smaller ones, will give these potential parents more opportunities by offering competitive benefits for new parents instead of incentivizing aborting babies. Would-be parents can make excellent and grateful would-be employees.