The landmark case of Roe Vs Wade was overturned by the US Supreme Court, holding that the country no longer offers federal constitutional right to an abortion. However, some states in the US consider abortion a legal act in its own capacity. Certain states allow it throughout the pregnancy period and some have put a cap of six months to three months into pregnancy.
After the verdict came out on 24 June, many companies started offering abortion and healthcare benefits to employees to travel to other states where abortion was legal and offer to cover the cost. Google had also announced its abortion benefits policy where employees can travel to different states and the cost will be covered by the firm. Moreover Googlers also has the flexibility to relocate to different states if they want to. However, the policy is only available to its full-time employees.
A group of 600 employees have now signed a letter addressed to Sundar Pichai, CEO, Google, Fiona Cicconi, chief people officer, Google, Bobby Dhanoa, who oversees Google’s extended workforce and Melonie Parker, Google’s chief diversity officer. This action was led by Alphabet Workers’ Union, which has around 1100 members as of now and is gaining prominence in becoming the voice of Google employees, including its extended workforce, which is small in number.
As per the letter, the union demands that the abortion healthcare benefits be extended to all contract workers at Google. The letter also demands the right of Google users to block advertisements that redirect the users to anti-abortion pregnancy crisis centres.
As of now, there is no official communication or statement released by Google on this development as per global media reports.
