(Reuters) – Microsoft Corp said on Monday that it would lengthen its abortion and gender affirming treatment products and services for staff members in the United States to involve vacation cost guidance.
Several organizations, such as Yelp Inc, Citigroup, Levi Strauss & Co, and Amazon.com Inc, have already pledged to cover expenditures for American workforce who have to have to travel out of point out for an abortion.
Some big employers, these kinds of as Walmart Inc and Target Corp, have not weighed in since the leak to Politico final week of a Supreme Court draft viewpoint that would overturn its 1973 final decision legalizing abortion nationwide.
The issue has attained urgency now that 31 states have introduced abortion bans this year, in accordance to policy examination by investigate group Guttmacher Institute.
Microsoft will “continue on to do almost everything we can below the legislation to shield our employees’ legal rights and support personnel” in accessing vital health care, which includes products and services like abortion and gender-affirming treatment, in the United States, a Microsoft spokesperson stated in a statement to Reuters.
“This aid is being extended to contain vacation cost assistance for these and other health-related services where access to treatment is restricted in availability in an employee’s house geographic location.”
(Reporting by Akanksha Khushi and Mrinalika Roy in Bengaluru supplemental reporting by Juby Babu Modifying by Subhranshu Sahu)