Amazon has announced that it will reimburse its staff for travel costs associated with “non-life-threatening” medical treatments, including abortion procedures.

According to reports from Reuters, Amazon’s generous travel expense package is slated to run up to $4,000, and it means the retail giant—and second-largest private employer in the United States—is the latest in a slew of companies devising measures to help employees circumvent current and potential abortion bans in red states. Among other companies, Citigroup and Yelp are providing similar travel packages to their employees.

The decision comes amid reports that the Supreme Court may overturn Roe v. Wade this summer, ending the controversial and legally dubious ruling that has legalized abortions nationwide since 1973. Should that be the case, a number of states, including Oklahoma, Alabama, and Mississippi, have assembled laws designed to severely restrict abortion access.

News of the potential ouster of Roe v. Wade has predictably led to ongoing meltdowns in the mainstream media and liberal circles, along with calls to codify Roe into law and to pack the courts. Meanwhile, the Court’s official ruling in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization is expected toward the end of June or early July, and it is not known if the illegally-leaked draft will stand. The leak of the draft in the first place, after all, was clearly intended to try to increase pressure and intimidation on the court to rule differently.

As for Amazon’s new travel expense package, it will apply retroactively to January 1 of this year. It will cover operations that are not available within a 100-mile range of an employee’s place of residence, and where virtual care is not an option. The reimbursements, however, are not specified for abortion—they apply to any non-life-threatening treatment or operation, including substance-abuse treatment, cellular gene therapy, and cardiology operations. For life-threatening treatments, Amazon will offer up to $10,000 in travel reimbursements.

Amazon’s travel benefits come amid a wide range of businesses either offering measures to circumvent abortion laws or otherwise signaling their opposition to abortion bans, in the latest example of “woke capital.” For instance, over 50 companies last year signed a statement indicating their opposition to a Texas law that bans abortion after six weeks of pregnancy. That included such companies as Yelp, the ride-share service Lyft, and the outdoor clothing manufacturer Patagonia. The cloud-computing company Salesforce even offered to relocate employees from its Texas facilities to other states.

Despite the obviously woke virtue-signaling inherent in these moves, a more practical concern appears to be at work. Companies like Amazon are evincing a noticeable eagerness to attract and retain new employees in locations that are crucial to their business models—and if that means offering very generous travel packages for medical procedures, that appears to be a price the online giant is more than willing to pay.

But whether Amazon’s motivations are altruistic, or purely mercenary, is anyone’s guess.

Amazon says it will now pay its employees up to $4,000 if they travel to have an abortion.

Women having children is an inconvenience for employers.

Amazon would rather pay it’s employees to kill their babies rather than paying them for maternity leave.

— Breanna Morello (@BreannaMorello) May 2, 2022

Amazon doesn’t want women to take maternity leave. They’d rather pay for travel-abortion. Employees w/o kids are more productive.

Is that what women want? To be pressured by their employer to be childless & productive? Will those that refuse to abort be declined promotions? https://t.co/OiB4H84Lvg

— Jen #CriticalThinker Wright (@JenWEsq) May 4, 2022

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Todd Jaquith

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"Originally from South Florida, Todd Jaquith now lives in sunny Santa Fe, New Mexico. He holds a degree in Anthropology from Florida Atlantic University."

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