Employers that are providing travel benefits for abortion have a number of considerations, including the reputational risks of providing such benefits. Many employers are quietly making such benefits available, despite the unclear legality of doing so.

Some companies have been public about providing travel benefits, but this is just the tip of the iceberg, according to Ben Conley, an attorney with Seyfarth in Chicago, at a Society for Human Resource Management webcast June 28 on Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, the recent Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. Provision of such benefits is happening more broadly than is apparent from the news, he said.

Multistate companies that are providing travel benefits for abortion are trying to ensure that everyone under their health insurance plan has the same level of services, he added.

Employers providing travel benefits for abortion may rely in part on Justice Brett Kavanaugh's concurrence in Dobbs. In his concurrence, Kavanaugh said that a state may not bar one of its residents from traveling to another state to obtain an abortion.

With three liberal justices on the court as well as Chief Justice John Roberts Jr., who might agree with Kavanaugh on this issue should the court face it, a law barring a state resident from traveling to another state to obtain an abortion might one day be ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, Conley predicted.

Questions for Employers

It's not novel to provide a...

Read Full Story: https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/legal-and-compliance/employment-law/pa...