Walmart is expanding its abortion coverage for its employees, including abortion-related travel expenses, the nation’s largest retailer announced Friday.
According to an internal memo, the company said its healthcare plans will now cover abortions for employees “when there is a health risk to the mother, rape or incest, ectopic pregnancy, miscarriage or lack of fetal viability.”
Previously, the company’s benefits plan had covered abortion only in cases “when the health of the mother would be in danger if the fetus were carried to term, the fetus could not survive the birthing process, or death would be imminent after birth,” according to a copy of the policy viewed by The Associated Press but not confirmed by Walmart.
As CBN News has reported, several companies, including Target, Apple, and Disney, started broadening their health-care plans to cover abortion shortly after the Supreme Court overturned Roe V. Wade, in early June.
But Walmart has stayed largely quiet on the issue.
Last month, Walmart’s CEO, Doug McMillon, told employees they were “working thoughtfully and diligently to figure out the best path forward” after the Supreme Court decision.
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At that time, Walmart did not mention what changes the company was considering.
Other companies like Target have faced a backlash for their increasingly pro-abortion policies.
“Companies who fund travel to another state for an abortion and don’t provide the extra support for their employees who choose life are practicing discrimination, and their actions are a slap in the face to the more than 70% of Americans who want restrictions on abortion,” Penny Nance, president of Concerned Women of America, told the Secrets column of Washington Examiner after Target announced it was expanding their abortion coverage.
The Walmart organization employs 1.6 million people in the U.S. In Arkansas, where the company is based, abortion is banned under all circumstances unless it is needed to save the life of the mother in a medical emergency.
Walmart’s chief people officer, Donna Morris, said in the memo the group’s health plans would offer “travel support” for employees and their dependents—who travel within 100 miles of its locations to get an abortion.
The company also said it will launch a center that provides fertility services to employees, such as in vitro fertilization.
Additionally, it vowed to add surrogacy support and increase its financial aid for adoptions from $5,000 to $20,000. In June, Walmart said it would also expand its offering of doulas — or people who assist women during pregnancies — to address racial disparities in maternal care.
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