The request from the Free Enterprise Project (FEP) at the National Center for Public Policy Research comes as companies have offered to cover expenses for female employees in pro-life states to travel for abortions.
Since the Supreme Court's reversal of Roe v. Wade in 2022, some red states have moved to restrict abortions, and the companies say they want to help workers travel to blue states for the procedure.
"Because so many corporations offered their employees to move out of state to get an abortion, we filed proposals requesting companies to take a neutral position on abortion and not one way or the other," says FEP's Ethan Peck.
Companies that have announced travel reimbursement for abortion include Amazon, JPMorgan Chase, Starbucks, Microsoft, and Mastercard. Meanwhile, they do not offer such a benefit to conservative employees in blue states with, for example, tough gun laws.
Last week, after determining the boycott is doing more harm than good, San Francisco announced that it is repealing a ban on city-funded travel to states that restrict abortion. The state of California may follow suit, and Peck believes corporations should take note.
"It's a sort of cautionary proposal to corporations about getting involved in state policy," he submits.
