Rhia Ventures, now in its third year of advocating for better corporate policies related to reproductive and maternal health care, has worked with allied investors to file 14 proposals for 2022.

Reproductive rights are on the line this year as the U.S. Supreme Court considers a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision protecting the right to access abortion without excessive government restriction. Should Roe be overturned or gravely weakened, as is widely anticipated, as many as 26 states are poised to ban abortion completely within their borders. Texas Senate Bill 8, enacted into law in September 2021 and undergoing challenge in court, is another potential game changer if it is allowed to stand. The law imposes a ban on abortions past the detection of fetal electrical activity described by its supporters as a “fetal heartbeat,” usually around the sixth week of pregnancy. And in an innovative twist, it grants any non-state actor the right to sue any person or entity (including employers) that aids, abets, or ensures an abortion performed for any reason by a physician licensed by the state of Texas past the six-week limit.

Our proposals are part of a broad campaign to influence corporate policies concerning insurance, benefits, public policy, and political spending as they relate to this topic. Ten draw attention to observed misalignment between companies’ stated commitment to advance women in the workplace and their political support for politicians and political organizations working to undermine access to abortion and other forms of reproductive and maternal health care. The proposals also cite other instances of incongruity between values and political spending recipients with respect to climate change, affordable medicines, voting rights, and anti-LGBTQ laws. In the 2021 proxy season, proposals of this type drew strong votes at JPMorgan Chase (30 percent), Home Depot (38 percent), FedEx (37 percent), and Pfizer (47 percent).

Four proposals call for a public report “detailing any known and any potential risks and costs to the company caused by enacted or proposed state policies severely restricting reproductive rights, and detailing any strategies beyond litigation and legal compliance that the company may deploy to minimize or mitigate these risks.” These have been filed at companies (Kroger, TJX, Walmart, and Lowe’s) whose workforce includes employees in numerous states that are expected to ban abortion if Roe is overturned. In that environment, those who need abortion care will need to travel – in some cases, hundreds of miles – to obtain it and may not have the financial means to make the trip.

Companies can mitigate these circumstances by strengthening their contraceptive benefits, insuring elective abortions (if they do not already), establishing emergency funds and subsidizing travel costs incurred to obtain health care that cannot be accessed in-state, and granting appropriate time off for travel and recovery, among other measures. The shareholders are also encouraging companies to communicate to lawmakers that laws restricting reproductive health care are hurtful to working women and other birthing people, their families, and the business community.

Shelley Alpern
Director of Corporate Engagement, Rhia Ventures