Walmart And The Post-Dobbs Reaction

 

 

The largest private employer in the country has joined other companies in facilitating access to abortions for its employees:

Walmart is expanding its employee health-care plans to cover more situations in which its staff might seek an abortion, making the nation’s largest private employer the latest firm to offer enhanced access to reproductive health services after Roe v. Wade was overturned.

Arkansas-headquartered Walmart, which has 1.6 million employees in the United States, said it would cover abortions “when there is a health risk to the mother, rape or incest.” It will also pay for the procedure in the event of miscarriage, a lack of fetal viability or an ectopic pregnancy, when a fetus implants outside the uterus. The company will provide “travel support” for employees and dependents if they require access to a health service covered by Walmart’s insurance plan but there is no viable provider within 100 miles of their location.

Walmart’s top human resources officer said in an internal memo that the new benefits are effective immediately.  [snip]

... About 53 percent of Walmart’s employees in the United States are women. It operates more than 2,000 stores in states that have either banned abortion or imposed near-total restrictions on the procedure.  [snip]

Other companies that have offered support to employees seeking to terminate a pregnancy include Disney, which employs some 80,000 people in Florida, a state with a near-total ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Dick’s Sporting Goods has said it will reimburse employees up to $4,000 in travel expenses to the nearest location where abortion is legal. Lyft and JPMorgan, as well as Walmart competitors Target and CVS, have made similar moves.

These companies are simply reflecting the reality of American life, post-Dobbs:  65% of Americans say overturning Roe was a major loss of rights for womens;  nearly 60% support a Federal law establishing a right to abortion;  80% say states shouldn't stop people from traveling to another state for an abortion.

Walmart, Target, CVS, Disney, Dick's.  It doesn't get more "heartland" middle America than that. (Oh, and let's not forget ruby red Kansas!)  

Politically, this significant loss of freedom -- courtesy of the Republican Supreme Court and Republican legislatures across the country -- is energizing women to register to vote:

 

Here are the states with the biggest gender gap among new registrants since the Dobbs decision was handed down. This isn't just a blue state phenomena. In fact, it is more pronounced in states where choice is more at risk, or has been eliminated by the decision. pic.twitter.com/X4Kj2oG550

— Tom Bonier (@tbonier) August 17, 2022

Lest you think these aren't necessarily indicative of party engagement:

 

Starting in PA, where women have accounted for >56% of new registrants in that time period. Those women new registrants are 62%D to 15% R and 54% are under the age of 25. Compare that to men new registrants at 41% <25 and 43% D, 28% R.

— Tom Bonier (@tbonier) August 19, 2022

It's much the same in other states he sampled (see his thread).

It's the rare corporation that ever does anything that doesn't benefit its bottom line.  What's at work is the best example we have right now of the ol' "invisible hand" of the marketplace dictating policy at the corporate level.  Whatever the motivation, we and millions of women will take that as a win.

(Photo:  Matt Rourke/AP)