CORPORATIONS LARGELY MUM ON DRAFT ABORTION RULING
Businesses must weigh effects their comments may have
Some political and cultural events set off a cascade of emails from brands — sneaker, makeup and food companies telling their customers that they stand with them in a stressful time or reminding them to vote. But after a draft opinion obtained by Politico revealed the Supreme Court’s intention to overturn Roe v. Wade, the overwhelming reaction from corporate leaders was silence.
“This is an issue that many companies have shied away from,” said Miriam Warren, Yelp’s chief diversity officer.
Warren, whose company has been among the most vocal in support of abortion rights, is hoping the silence will break. She sees voicing an opinion, one way or another, as a necessity for recruiting and retaining talent.
“The days of companies not wading into political issues, or not speaking out on things that are perceived as private or personal, are over,” she said.
Anti-abortion campaigners, however, said the silence from companies made business sense.
“It is generally a mistake for corporate leaders to wade into political issues, particularly divisive political issues where they might alienate half their customer base,” said Anne Cori, chair of antiabortion group Eagle Forum.
And for now, that logic seems to hold. There were scattered responses expressing dismay with the draft opinion — largely from woman-focused brands and the women who run them, many of whom previously spoke out on the subject.
OKCupid, a dating service, wrote on Twitter on Tuesday that overturning Roe v. Wade would be “unacceptable,” adding: “Tag a brand you want to see take action.”
Kate Ryder, CEO of Maven, a women’s and family health group, wrote that her team had been making plans on how to help companies protect abortion access for their workers if Roe was overturned. Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Meta, wrote on her personal Facebook page that it was “a scary day for women.”
Beyond that, among most Fortune 500 companies, substantive statements were few and far between, whether in support of or opposition to the court’s draft opinion.
In recent years, business leaders have dipped their toe into political discourse, making public statements in support of Black Lives Matter or voting rights or marriage equality.
Even more recently, corporate leaders were reminded of how fraught engagement can be. Disney, for example, faced internal backlash when its leadership declined to take a strong stance against Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Act, which critics often refer to as the “Don’t Say Gay” law. But when the CEO did take a public stance, the company was crucified on social media and the state revoked its special tax benefits.
Now, with the expected demise of the country’s landmark abortion law, corporate leaders are confronting the hottest of hot-button issues. In a Pew Research poll in 2021, 59 percent of Americans said they believed that abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while 39 percent said it should be illegal in all or most cases. People on all sides of the issue feel strongly about it, with nearly one-quarter of Americans saying they will vote only for candidates who share their views on abortion, according to Gallup.
For some major companies that have been known to weigh in on political and social issues, this week has been unusually quiet. Walmart, Disney, Meta, PwC, Salesforce, JPMorgan Chase, ThirdLove, Patagonia, Kroger and Business Roundtable were among the companies and organizations that declined to comment or take a position, or did not respond to requests for comment about whether they plan to make public statements about their stance on abortion.
Hobby Lobby, which in 2014 brought a suit to the Supreme Court challenging whether employer-provided health care had to include contraception, made no public statement and did not respond to a request for comment.
Other companies did wade in. United Talent Agency said it would reimburse travel expenses for employees affected by abortion bans. Airbnb said it would ensure its employees “have the resources they need to make choices about their reproductive rights.” Levi Strauss & Co., which has said its benefits plan will reimburse employees who have to travel out of state for health care services such as abortions, said abortion was a business issue.
Women make up roughly half of the workforce, and those who are unable to get an abortion are less likely to be employed full time six months after denial of care, according to a 2018 paper. The percentage of women participating in the labor force has grown significantly since the Roe ruling in 1973; between 1962 and 2000, it jumped from 37 percent to 61 percent.