“It's time for companies to stand up for reproductive health care,” a full-page ad in Monday’s New York Times reads—but it’s not, as you might think, advocacy groups calling on companies to change their ways. Top executives from 180 companies signed on to the ad, which says that restrictive abortion laws are “against our values.”
The ad follows statements from several high-profile companies that Georgia’s abortion ban, in particular, threatens their continued investment in the state. Netflix, Disney, and WarnerMedia have all said they might pull out of producing movies and TV shows in the state. The ad was coordinated by a coalition that includes Planned Parenthood, NARAL Pro-Choice America, and the ACLU. “We encourage the entire business community to join us in protecting access to reproductive health care in the critical months and years to come,” NARAL president Ilyse Hogue said in a statement.
“We already have pretty anemic parental leave laws in this country to begin with, and a pay gap on top of that," said Vikrum Aiyer, Postmates’ vice president of public policy. He called abortion restrictions "another chipping away of gender equity.”
Tech companies are well-represented on the list of 180 companies, including Slack, Square, Yelp, and Tinder. So too is fashion, with CEOs or top executives from DVF, Eileen Fisher, rag & bone, and more. And media, with blavity, Refinery29, The Cut, and PopSugar.