NEW YORK, June 24 (Reuters) – Several American companies such as Disney and Meta, the parent company of Facebook, announced on Friday that they were committed to covering the travel costs of their employees who would be forced to travel to use a abortion, after the Supreme Court’s decision to revoke the 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision that paved the way for the legalization of abortion in the United States.
The Court, where the conservatives sit in force, voted by five votes against four for the cancellation of the Roe judgment, the judges in favor of this revocation considering that this text authorizing voluntary termination of pregnancy at the federal level was an erroneous decision because the United States Constitution makes no specific mention of the right to abortion.
Several states would restrict access to abortion, or prohibit it, after this decision, which would force women to travel to states where abortion is still permitted to terminate their pregnancies.
Disney has told its employees that it is committed to providing access to quality health care, which includes abortion, a company spokesperson said.
Travel costs for employees who need to travel to another state to access health care, including abortions, will be covered by the company, Disney said.
Meta has also pledged to reimburse travel costs for employees who need to travel to access reproductive health care, with the company “evaluating the best way to do this given the legal complexities involved”, according to a spokesperson. .
Companies that offer to reimburse travel costs for abortions could face lawsuits from anti-abortion groups and Republican states, and even criminal penalties.
(Report David Shepardson and Dawn Chmielewski, with contributions from Nivedita Balu, Tiyashi Datta, Doyinsola Oladipo and Daniel Wiessner, writing by Anna Driver and Peter Henderson; French version Camille Raynaud)
–
