Expenses will be reimbursed if an employee has to travel more than 160 kilometers from her home to get an abortion.
The global coffee chain has joined the likes of Amazon, Microsoft and a growing list of other companies offering the benefit as some Republican states have begun prohibiting abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. Democratic states, including New York, allow abortions at almost any term, but the road to the north of the country for many Southerners is unaffordable
The immediate impetus for these steps was the publication by Politico of a draft U.S. Supreme Court decision on the constitutionality of Mississippi’s abortion restrictions. The draft suggests that the court is ready to overturn federal protections of the right to abortion – a decision that has previously led courts to overturn laws passed by some states that restricted the right to abortion.
“Like many others, I am very concerned about the Supreme Court’s draft decision related to the constitutional right to abortion,” Starbucks Vice President of Human Resources Sarah Kelly said in a letter.