The tech companies that are — and aren’t — publicly planning for life after Roe

Though many have remained silent, a handful of tech giants have publicly announced benefits to help their employees obtain abortion-related health care.

The U.S. Supreme Court

Though a lot of companies have so far remained silent on the issue, a handful of tech giants have spoken up.

Photo: Angel Xavier Viera-Vargas

As states prepare to restrict access to abortion following the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion striking down Roe v. Wade, major tech companies are planning for how the ruling will affect their workforces.

Though a lot of companies have so far remained silent on the issue, a handful of tech giants have spoken up, offering statements of support for those affected and bolstering their travel benefits for people seeking abortion care that need to travel outside of states where it will almost certainly be banned once the ruling is overturned.

Here’s a breakdown of which companies have spoken up, what they’re offering and a few notable omissions.

Microsoft

Microsoft announced Monday that it is expanding its abortion and gender-affirming care services for U.S. employees to now cover travel costs and medical assistance “where access to care is limited in availability in an employee's home geographic region,” Reuters reported.

Microsoft told Reuters that it will "continue to do everything we can under the law to protect our employees' rights and support employees."

Amazon

Just before the draft Supreme Court opinion leaked, Amazon announced it would offer a $4,000 benefit for its more than 1 million employees to travel for out-of-state health care — including abortions. Given that Amazon is the second-largest employer in the U.S., the benefit could have a greater impact on individual lives than any other provided by a company.

That said, Amazon’s benefit does leave out a significant part of its workforce: Hundreds of thousands of contractors and part-time employees aren’t eligible.

Yelp

Yelp announced on April 12 that it would be covering travel costs for employees seeking health care out of their home state, making it one of the first companies to do so. Yelp’s Chief Diversity Officer Miriam Warren told Reuters: “In order to safeguard employees and make sure that they can get the health care that they need, no matter what state they live in, we need a benefit like this.”

Apple

Apple first announced an abortion benefit for employees living in Texas in September following that state’s passage of a ban on abortions after six weeks. Tim Cook said in a meeting with 160,000 employees, a recording of which was obtained by the New York Times, that medical insurance would help cover costs incurred by those who needed to travel out of Texas to receive care. An internal memo later clarified that the benefit applies to any employees that need to “travel out-of-state for medical care if it is unavailable in their home state.”

Tesla

Tesla, which is headquartered in Austin, Texas, made public on May 6 that it has had a policy in place since 2021 that covers travel and lodging costs for employees who need to travel to access health care. The policy was detailed in the company’s 2021 Impact Report, though it doesn’t mention the word “abortion,” instead saying its benefit covers those that “seek healthcare services that are unavailable in their home state.”

DoorDash

DoorDash confirmed in an email to Protocol that it would cover travel-related expenses for employees and dependents enrolled in DoorDash’s health care plans who have to travel out of state for abortion-related care. The company’s health care plans also cover reproductive care, including abortions. This benefit does not cover DoorDash’s independent contractors, which include its delivery drivers. The benefit was first announced on May 6 and will be rolled out in the coming weeks. Employees will also be able to backdate their submitted coverage costs if need be.

“It’s paramount that all DoorDash employees and their dependents covered on our health plans have equitable, timely access to safe healthcare,” DoorDash said in a statement.

Lyft

Following Oklahoma preparing to outlaw abortion in a ban similar to Texas’, Lyft announced plans to work with health care providers to launch a program which would cover costs of transportation to airports and clinics for employees in Oklahoma and Texas seeking care. Lyft’s U.S. medical benefits also include coverage for elective abortion. Lyft has yet to comment on whether or not this benefit would apply to employees in states with trigger laws banning and limiting abortion other than Oklahoma and Texas.

Along with covering employee travel costs, Lyft will cover legal fees for drivers who may be sued under the Oklahoma or Texas laws for driving passengers to obtain abortions.

Salesforce

Salesforce gives its employees and their families assistance with relocation if they need to seek reproductive care out of their home state. Like Apple, Salesforce implemented this benefit in September following the Texas abortion law.

Match Group and Bumble

Bumble and parent company Match Group each set up funds to support people seeking abortions outside of Texas when that state enacted its restrictive abortion law. It’s unclear if these funds will be expanded to other states affected by the trigger laws when Roe v. Wade is overturned.

Bumble released a statement on May 3 stating that the company “will continue to fight for the rights and protections of women all over the world. The health and safety of our team is our utmost priority and that includes covering access to abortion care. We will continue to partner with organizations that work to provide reproductive access to all.”

Google

Alphabet-owned Google has a policy which allows employees to expense abortion-related travel, a company spokesperson confirmed to Protocol. The policy was implemented prior to the SCOTUS draft opinion being leaked, amid several states considering abortion bans and restrictions, the spokesperson said.

Netflix

Netflix offers a travel reimbursement benefit for U.S.-based employees and dependents that covers travel costs for abortion, as well as cancer treatment, transplants and gender affirming care, through its U.S. health plans. The reimbursement is a $10,000 allowance per employee and their dependents per service.

Who hasn’t spoken up?

There are a few notable companies that haven't announced what employee resources they plan to offer should the end of Roe v. Wade trigger abortion bans in states where they operate (at least 30 tech companies call these states home). Employee benefits consultant Jessica Du Bois told Protocol that it’s likely only large companies will speak out, as mid-sized and small companies are more wary of the legal risks. But Meta has yet to publicly announce its move.

Similar to Lyft, Uber also said in late April that it would cover legal fees for drivers sued under the Texas or Oklahoma laws, but hasn’t said whether or not it’ll provide benefits for employees seeking abortions.

Though Meta didn’t comment publicly, Sheryl Sandberg on her personal Facebook account vocally opposed the Supreme Court draft ruling, saying: “Few things are more important to women’s health and equality.”


This story has been updated to include Google and Netflix's policies.

Fintech

Judge Zia Faruqui is trying to teach you crypto, one ‘SNL’ reference at a time

His decisions on major cryptocurrency cases have quoted "The Big Lebowski," "SNL," and "Dr. Strangelove." That’s because he wants you — yes, you — to read them.

The ways Zia Faruqui (right) has weighed on cases that have come before him can give lawyers clues as to what legal frameworks will pass muster.

Photo: Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post via Getty Images

“Cryptocurrency and related software analytics tools are ‘The wave of the future, Dude. One hundred percent electronic.’”

That’s not a quote from "The Big Lebowski" — at least, not directly. It’s a quote from a Washington, D.C., district court memorandum opinion on the role cryptocurrency analytics tools can play in government investigations. The author is Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui.

Keep ReadingShow less
Veronica Irwin

Veronica Irwin (@vronirwin) is a San Francisco-based reporter at Protocol covering fintech. Previously she was at the San Francisco Examiner, covering tech from a hyper-local angle. Before that, her byline was featured in SF Weekly, The Nation, Techworker, Ms. Magazine and The Frisc.

The financial technology transformation is driving competition, creating consumer choice, and shaping the future of finance. Hear from seven fintech leaders who are reshaping the future of finance, and join the inaugural Financial Technology Association Fintech Summit to learn more.

Keep ReadingShow less
FTA
The Financial Technology Association (FTA) represents industry leaders shaping the future of finance. We champion the power of technology-centered financial services and advocate for the modernization of financial regulation to support inclusion and responsible innovation.
Enterprise

AWS CEO: The cloud isn’t just about technology

As AWS preps for its annual re:Invent conference, Adam Selipsky talks product strategy, support for hybrid environments, and the value of the cloud in uncertain economic times.

Photo: Noah Berger/Getty Images for Amazon Web Services

AWS is gearing up for re:Invent, its annual cloud computing conference where announcements this year are expected to focus on its end-to-end data strategy and delivering new industry-specific services.

It will be the second re:Invent with CEO Adam Selipsky as leader of the industry’s largest cloud provider after his return last year to AWS from data visualization company Tableau Software.

Keep ReadingShow less
Donna Goodison

Donna Goodison (@dgoodison) is Protocol's senior reporter focusing on enterprise infrastructure technology, from the 'Big 3' cloud computing providers to data centers. She previously covered the public cloud at CRN after 15 years as a business reporter for the Boston Herald. Based in Massachusetts, she also has worked as a Boston Globe freelancer, business reporter at the Boston Business Journal and real estate reporter at Banker & Tradesman after toiling at weekly newspapers.

Image: Protocol

We launched Protocol in February 2020 to cover the evolving power center of tech. It is with deep sadness that just under three years later, we are winding down the publication.

As of today, we will not publish any more stories. All of our newsletters, apart from our flagship, Source Code, will no longer be sent. Source Code will be published and sent for the next few weeks, but it will also close down in December.

Keep ReadingShow less
Bennett Richardson

Bennett Richardson ( @bennettrich) is the president of Protocol. Prior to joining Protocol in 2019, Bennett was executive director of global strategic partnerships at POLITICO, where he led strategic growth efforts including POLITICO's European expansion in Brussels and POLITICO's creative agency POLITICO Focus during his six years with the company. Prior to POLITICO, Bennett was co-founder and CMO of Hinge, the mobile dating company recently acquired by Match Group. Bennett began his career in digital and social brand marketing working with major brands across tech, energy, and health care at leading marketing and communications agencies including Edelman and GMMB. Bennett is originally from Portland, Maine, and received his bachelor's degree from Colgate University.

Enterprise

Why large enterprises struggle to find suitable platforms for MLops

As companies expand their use of AI beyond running just a few machine learning models, and as larger enterprises go from deploying hundreds of models to thousands and even millions of models, ML practitioners say that they have yet to find what they need from prepackaged MLops systems.

As companies expand their use of AI beyond running just a few machine learning models, ML practitioners say that they have yet to find what they need from prepackaged MLops systems.

Photo: artpartner-images via Getty Images

On any given day, Lily AI runs hundreds of machine learning models using computer vision and natural language processing that are customized for its retail and ecommerce clients to make website product recommendations, forecast demand, and plan merchandising. But this spring when the company was in the market for a machine learning operations platform to manage its expanding model roster, it wasn’t easy to find a suitable off-the-shelf system that could handle such a large number of models in deployment while also meeting other criteria.

Some MLops platforms are not well-suited for maintaining even more than 10 machine learning models when it comes to keeping track of data, navigating their user interfaces, or reporting capabilities, Matthew Nokleby, machine learning manager for Lily AI’s product intelligence team, told Protocol earlier this year. “The duct tape starts to show,” he said.

Keep ReadingShow less
Kate Kaye

Kate Kaye is an award-winning multimedia reporter digging deep and telling print, digital and audio stories. She covers AI and data for Protocol. Her reporting on AI and tech ethics issues has been published in OneZero, Fast Company, MIT Technology Review, CityLab, Ad Age and Digiday and heard on NPR. Kate is the creator of RedTailMedia.org and is the author of "Campaign '08: A Turning Point for Digital Media," a book about how the 2008 presidential campaigns used digital media and data.

Latest Stories
Bulletins