Workforce Crisis Looming from Abortion Bounty Bill in Texas

New Texas law opens up abortion bounty which harms women in the workforce

Enacted on September 1, 2021, Senate Bill (SB) 8 permits almost anyone to sue a person who provides or “aids and abets” an abortion after approximately 6 weeks of pregnancy. This unprecedented provision gives private parties the right to sue, regardless of whether they have any connection to the patient or even live in Texas. The law’s language is so broad that anyone who offers information or referrals for abortion care, drives the patient to a facility, helps them pay for their abortion—or intends to do so—could face a civil suit for $10,000 for each abortion and be required to pay the plaintiff's court costs. 

As Fortune aptly states, it creates an ecosystem of abortion bounty hunters. It is designed to isolate patients. And restrictions to abortion care in Texas already cost the state over $14 billion annually. This situation will continue to unfold in the days ahead.

How can companies respond to this crisis?

• Companies can state that their workplace affirms and supports employees who need access to comprehensive reproductive healthcare services including abortion, which is constitutionally protected. 
• Texas limits private insurance coverage of abortion, but companies that self-insure can customize their coverage without respect to state mandates or restrictions with respect to abortion. Companies who currently extend health insurance that covers abortion care should affirm their intention to continue doing so. Companies that do not offer this coverage, but which have ability to do so by virtue of being self-funded, should do so.
• Corporations should undertake a legal risk assessment of their potential liability under SB 8, including an analysis of whether the passage of the law establishes precedent for the further curtailment of their rights as employers to choose which health care services they will insure.
• Companies should conduct a self-audit to determine obstacles faced by employees who need to obtain abortion care, including limitations imposed by the corporate health care plan, network providers, or the distance of the nearest provider. 
• Employee Resource Groups can ask their employers to engage lawmakers privately as well as speak out publicly on the impacts to current workers, prospective employees and the communities of which they are a part. ERGs should emphasize the alignment between supporting reproductive health and upholding gender and racial equity commitments.
• Corporations can advise lawmakers that SB 8 threatens the health and wellbeing of their workers and impacts the talent pool in Texas, and makes it more difficult to recruit workers from out of state.
• Companies can donate to organizations working to alleviate the harm done in Texas by SB8. 
• Companies and their Political Action Committees (PACs) should cease making political donations to the lawmakers who sponsored or approved the passage of SB 8.

To learn more about what your company, executive champions and employees can do, please email jstark@tarahealthfoundation.org. 

Feel free to share this message with colleagues at your workplace and other allies.