from Hacker News

Amazon, Meta, Google and more will pay for abortion, but not birth

by nikolqy on 6/24/22, 10:03 PM with 28 comments

• by thagerty on 6/24/22, 11:48 PM

  It's a cost/benefit win for many companies in the U.S. where maternity leave, let alone universal health care, is not the norm. The optics of such a policy cast a favorable light on the employer, while the cost is minimal, and much less than maternity leave. Since most Americans are in favor of Roe v Wade, the employer is not taking much of a risk by taking a side here. If you haven't guessed by now, business in the U.S. is not about having a happy workforce, it is about the bottom line. Only when competition for that workforce intensifies do the employers consider adding perks. And yes, it's insane.

• by jleyank on 6/25/22, 2:31 AM

  There’s no need to pay for birth travel and all of these companies provide health insurance to pay for births. Parental leave, not so much, but the pre and post partum health coverage should be fine. Careful if they eliminate ACA as being preggers goes back to being a pre-existing condition requiring cobra coverage when changing jobs.

• by ss108 on 6/24/22, 10:07 PM

  You're going to have elaborate about what these policies are and also what you think they should be doing.

  > but won’t pay you more money if you decide to keep the baby.

  It sounds like you think they should give people pay increases if they have children. Of course, they also offer parental leave, and arguably lose money every time one of their employees has a baby, so if that's what you want them to do, it makes no sense.

  To be clear, I'm not proposing they have some nefarious economic purpose in paying employees to fly to get abortions. I think the companies genuinely view it as a healthcare benefit, and most of their employees genuinely feel that it should be a fundamental Federal right.

  > Where are the people in tech that are fighting back against this?

  Who would bother, aside from people with serious moral qualms about abortion?

• by subsection1h on 6/25/22, 1:35 AM

  https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=nikolqy

  "Male, 19 and living in Missouri right now."

  LOL.

• by throwawaysleep on 6/24/22, 10:27 PM

  Do they not already pay for maternity leave?

• by jelliclesfarm on 6/24/22, 10:09 PM

  Why is this ‘insane’?

  A woman’s body is her property. A fetus is part of the woman’s body. Whatever medical procedure she does with her body is her right. And companies are willing to provide for her medical care.

• by togaen on 6/24/22, 11:02 PM

  Why would anyone fight against companies providing health care benefits to their employees?