Walmart, which is America’s largest employer, is expanding its abortion coverage following the Supreme Court’s ruling in June overturning landmark case Roe v. Wade.
The changes were outlined in a memo sent to employees on Friday. The company will cover abortion for employees in instances “when there is a health risk to the mother, rape or incest, ectopic pregnancy, miscarriage or lack of fetal viability,” according to the Associated Press.
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.
Donna Morris, the retailer’s chief people officer, said in the memo to staff that the new policy will also offer “travel support” for workers seeking abortions covered under its health care plans — as well as their dependents — so they can access services that are not available within 100 miles of their locations.
After the Dobbs ruling, a slew of companies, including Google, Yelp, Citigroup, Microsoft, Salesforce and Starbucks unrolled policies to help their workers obtain abortions.
In Walmart’s memo, the company added that it would launch a center to provide fertility services to their employees.
In the memo sent Friday, the company said it will also 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 expand its offering of doulas — or people who assist women during pregnancies — to address racial disparities in maternal care.
Since the Supreme Court's ruling, pro-abortion supporters have said that treatment for ectopic pregnancies would be impacted if abortion were made illegal. Spencer covered how Planned Parenthood deleted information on its website that explained the difference between an abortion and an ectopic pregnancy.
The edit on PP’s website was noticed by pro-life organization Live Action:
Planned Parenthood has freshly scrubbed its website in light of the media’s attempts to convince women that ectopic pregnancy treatments and other lifesaving procedures are actually abortions. Induced abortion, however, is the intentional killing of a human being before birth.
What did Planned Parenthood purge? A sentence that read, “Treating an ectopic pregnancy isn’t the same thing as getting an abortion.”
The clear distinction that abortion is not necessary to treat dangerous ectopic pregnancies was present on the Planned Parenthood website in 2020, 2021, and most of this year — even as late as July 14, 2022. Since the Supreme Court’s reversal of the infamous Roe v. Wade decision, media misinformation has spread like wildfire, muddling the true definition of abortion in the minds of the public.
As Spencer pointed out in his report, Planned Parenthood has been caught by Live Action before for editing its website to remove inconvenient statements to its abortion business. In 2015, the organization reported that Planned Parenthood had "scrubbed" the name of its founder, Margaret Sanger, from its activities and history.
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