Kroger, Amazon say they will cover travel costs for abortion
Some of Ohio’s largest employers are already pledging to pay for travel if employees choose to leave the state for an abortion, which many would now have to do for abortions because of Ohio’s “heartbeat” bill.
Soon after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a federal judge in Cincinnati lifted a ban on Ohio’s “heartbeat” anti-abortion law, allowing the previously passed bill to go into effect. The law bans abortions when fetal cardiac activity is detected, which happens at about six weeks of pregnancy.
This means many Ohio women choosing to get an abortion will have to travel hundreds of miles to access to procedure after about six weeks.
Kroger and Amazon, Ohio’s third and fourth largest employers by number of workers, have already announced polices that would reimburse women who travel for the procedure. So have JPMorgan & Chase, the state’s 10th largest employer and Giant Eagle, which employs the 12th most people in the state. Together, they employ about 147,000 Ohioans, according to Ohio Department of Development data.
The Cleveland Cavaliers, which employ about 2,500 full-time and parttime employees in Ohio, announced Monday afternoon that they’d also cover travel costs.
JP Morgan & Chase, which employees nearly 20,000 people in Ohio, sent an email to all U.S. employees June 1 about healthcare benefits, which includes covering travel for any covered service that can only be obtained more than 50 miles from a worker’s home.
The healthcare plan previously covered travel for certain services, like organ transplants, but expanded to include all covered healthcare that could only be found far from home, including abortion.
“As always, we’re focused on the health and well-being of our employees, and want to ensure equitable access to all benefits,” said JPMorgan Chase spokesman Justin Page.
Giant Eagle, headquartered in Pittsburgh, told cleveland. com on Monday that it would also reimburse workers who had to travel between states in access abortion.
“At Giant Eagle, we are committed to providing our Team Members access to comprehensive healthcare, including access to reproductive care,” Giant Eagle spokesperson Jannah Jablonowski said in a statement. “We join other businesses by committing to reimburse expenses for covered family members to travel between states to access family planning services. We will share specific details related to this offering with our Team Members in the coming days.”
Kroger, headquartered in Cincinnati and an employer of about 42,000 in Ohio, said in a statement that its benefits package included reimbursing travel for several medical treatments, including abortion.
“We invest in the whole person with a comprehensive benefits package that includes quality, affordable health care and travel benefits up to $4,000 to facilitate access to quality care for several categories of medical treatments and a full range of reproductive health care services, including abortion and fertility treatments, for company-plan participants,” Kroger said in a statement to Fox 19, a Cincinnati area TV station.
Amazon, which employs about 41,000 people in Ohio, told staff in May it would pay up to $4,000 in travel expenses annually for nonlife threatening medical treatments including abortions, according to Reuters.
Reuters reports that Amazon’s benefit applies if an operation is not available within 100 miles of an employee’s home and virtual care is not possible.
A cleveland.com reporter has reached out to Kroger and Amazon for this story.
The Cavaliers organization, which includes Monsters, Charge and Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse employees, said in a statement Monday that it believed “having full access to reproductive health care is a fundamental freedom of choice all women should have.”
“We will now cover costs to travel outside Ohio for reproductive health care to the fullest extent permitted by state law,” the statement read.
Nationwide, Ohio’s 17th largest employer with about 12,000 employees, said its health plan already covers expenses related to women’s reproductive care, including termination of pregnancy. It is now reviewing whether to add further coverage for travel.
“As a company that values people, Nationwide recognizes that medical decisions and family planning are deeply personal,” the company said in a statement. “We are monitoring this new development and, over the coming weeks, will determine any implications to our policies and benefits.”
A growing number of companies,, including Starbucks, Apple, Meta (formerly Facebook) and Uber. have announced similar plans to help workers who now have to travel long distances to get an abortion.
Lauren Hobart, president and CEO of DICK’s Sporting Goods, announced Friday on LinkedIn that DICK’s would cover travel costs so employees could have access to benefits, regardless of which state they live in.
“In response to today’s ruling, we are announcing that if a state one of our teammates lives in restricts access to abortion, DICK’S Sporting Goods will provide up to $4,000 in travel expense reimbursement to travel to the nearest location where that care is legally available,” Hobart wrote in the post.