Amazon will cover costs for workers who travel for abortions

Amazon will go over up to $4,000 in expenses each year for staff members who need to journey to other states to entry treatment method for non-daily life-threatening situations like abortion and transgender care, the business informed staff on Monday. 

The announcement arrived just hours right before a leaked Supreme Court viewpoint appeared to present the court on the brink of overturning Roe v. Wade, which would probable leave inhabitants of a lot of red states this sort of as Texas unable to obtain abortions. 

The Amazon news, which was initially documented by Reuters, will come right after other firms together with Apple, Citigroup, Levi’s and Yelp have also pledged to cover journey for abortions. 

An Amazon spokesperson confirmed the move to The Post. 

“Amazon has expanded the vacation and lodging advantage to address journey for a number of non-everyday living-threatening problems if a provider is not readily available in 100 miles of an employee’s house,” the spokesperson reported. “This is not precise to any one particular procedure or affliction, and the list is considerably extended than [abortion and transgender care].” 

Equally corporate and warehouse staff members are suitable for the benefit if they are enrolled in Amazon’s Premera or Aetna well being strategies. The modify will just take acquire impact on Jan. 1. 

Amazon by now coated travel reimbursement of up to $10,000 for treatment method of daily life-threatening situations, in accordance to Reuters. 

The transfer could spark backlash from Republican lawmakers. 

Just after Citigroup introduced a identical benefit earlier this 12 months, dozens of GOP lawmakers condemned the go, with some Republican associates of Congress contacting on the federal federal government to terminate authorities contracts with the New York-primarily based bank.