Match or any other company would also face one-off expenses relocating and recruiting new staff – not to mention the impact on those who don't want to move and would lose their jobs as a result. U.S. companies need shareholders on side to make costly moves. The U.S. investing community has started to coalesce on issues like climate change and diversity, in part because business arguments can be made. But abortion access remains a divisive social topic across the country.
Dubey, Wolfe Herd and others have their bully pulpits and can offer financial help. But anyone hoping for corporate action that might really hurt in Texas is likely to be disappointed.- A Texas law imposing a near-total ban on abortion went into effect early Sept. 2 after the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 vote, denied an emergency request by abortion and women’s healthcare providers for an injunction on enforcement of the ban.
- In effect the law hands over power of enforcement to private citizens, by offering them cash payments to turn in people who are receiving abortions or aiding in the procedure. The ban prohibits abortion at a point when many women do not even realize they are pregnant. The law could still be blocked at some other stage.
- On Sept. 1, Texas-based Match Chief Executive Shar Dubey said in a statement that she was setting up a fund to help employees pay for abortions. The same day the dating app’s competitor Bumble, also based in the Lone Star State, said in a Twitter post that the company had created a “relief fund supporting the reproductive rights of women and people across the gender spectrum who seek abortions in Texas.”Opinions expressed are those of the author.