Live Action’s latest video explores what’s really behind the widespread corporate push to cover employee abortion costs — and it isn’t because they support women. The video follows a woman’s inner dialogue as she moves from relief that her company has offered to fly her out of state for an abortion to the “lightbulb moment” as she realizes that her company isn’t interested in her well-being at all, but only its bottom line.
The video opens with the woman, Jennifer, leaving human resources after telling them she is pregnant, and she notes they will pay for her abortion. “I should feel free, right?” she asks herself. She then tries to reassure herself, thinking, “It’s so nice to work for a company that values women.”
Things take a turn as Jennifer realizes that paying for an abortion will save the company a lot of money — costing far less than it would take them to support her in her pregnancy. “They wouldn’t be paying me to have an abortion just to avoid those costs — would they?” she considers.
“Stop having these crazy thoughts,” she chides herself. “They care about you. They want you to succeed, which means that they support you just as they support a man.”
This thought leads her to realize that if her company really cared about women, they would provide for the things that only women can do — like carry a child in the womb, give birth to that child, and breastfeed that child.
“Could it be that all this marketing about women’s rights, and women’s empowerment, and women’s liberation is actually just an excuse to abandon pregnant women and not give them any support?” she wonders.
She then dismisses this idea, thinking, “Companies would never virtue signal like that.”
As she struggles internally, Jennifer also realizes that the reason her company is willing to pay for her abortion may be the very same reason her boyfriend is “supporting” her in choosing an abortion — so he likely doesn’t have to worry about taking care of her and their baby.
“Don’t be silly,” she tells herself. “It’s just an abortion — it’s not like we’re talking about killing somebody.”
As the video ends, Jennifer’s eyes widen with the realization that that is exactly what abortion does.
