Amazon to Reimburse U.S. Employees for Abortion-Related Travel Costs

Amazon will reimburse workers within the U.S. who’re compelled to journey over 100 miles to acquire an abortion and different medical therapies, in line with a brand new report from Reuters. The reimbursement announcement got here by way of electronic mail to workers on the firm on Monday, in line with Reuters, and a Politico story late Monday about how the U.S. Supreme Court plans to overturn Roe v. Wade seems to have been fully coincidental.

Amazon will reportedly reimburse workers for as much as $4,000 in journey bills for any medical therapies that may’t be obtained inside 100 miles of the worker’s house, together with reproductive well being care therapies like abortions.

As Reuters notes, different corporations like Citigroup and Yelp have beforehand made related pledges, as Republican-controlled states have handed restrictive legal guidelines curbing the proper to have an abortion. Amazon didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark early Tuesday.

News of Amazon’s pledge to workers comes within the wake of a bombshell report from Politico that the U.S. Supreme Court will formally overturn the landmark 1973 abortion rights determination Roe v. Wade inside the subsequent eight weeks. Politico obtained a draft opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito that may utterly upend reproductive rights within the U.S. and pave the way in which for a rollback of quite a few different rights which were received over the previous 50 years.

The draft opinion, which might nonetheless be revised earlier than being launched, would basically enable every state’s legislature to find out its personal legal guidelines round abortion, which means roughly half the nation’s states would possible outlaw the observe. Even if Roe wasn’t overturned, it’s change into more and more troublesome for individuals in Republican-dominant states to acquire abortions and Amazon’s pledge will possible come as welcome information, given the truth that most Americans are pro-choice.

Roughly 59% of Americans say abortion needs to be authorized in all or most instances, in line with a 2021 survey by Pew Research, however the Supreme Court doesn’t reply to the need of the individuals and successfully turned a zombie establishment when neo-fascist President Donald Trump was allowed to make three appointments to the court docket, together with Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett.

“The inescapable conclusion is that a right to abortion is not deeply rooted in the Nation’s history and traditions,” Alito wrote within the draft opinion obtained by Politico.

At least 4 of the Court’s 9 justices are able to facet with Alito, in line with Politico, together with Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett. The 5 justices could be sufficient to offer the ruling a majority, although it’s not clear how Chief Justice John Roberts would vote. But finally it received’t matter.

The court docket appears able to toss out fifty years of authorized precedent to placate a fringe minority. And that’s simply the way in which issues at the moment are in a world the place President Trump by no means noticed actual penalties for his anti-democratic actions.