The software company Salesforce offered to relocate thousands of employees on Friday due to the newly enacted Texas Heartbeat Act, which restricts abortion to before an embryonic heartbeat can be detected.
In a message sent to employees on Slack, which the company purchased this year, its leadership stated, “These are incredibly personal issues that directly impact many of us — especially women. We recognize and respect that we all have deeply held and different perspectives. As a company, we stand with all of our women at Salesforce and everywhere.”
The message continued, “With that being said, if you have concerns about access to reproductive healthcare in your state, Salesforce will help relocate you and members of your immediate family.”
Ohana if you want to move we’ll help you exit TX. Your choice.❤️https://t.co/y5IKpm5fNs
— Marc Benioff (@Benioff) September 11, 2021
CEO Marc Benioff tweeted, “Ohana if you want to move we’ll help you exit TX. Your choice.” Ohana is a Hawaiian word for family. It is unclear if any employees have taken the company up on the offer.
Salesforce employs about 56,000 people in the US, Europe, and India, according to the Independent. The company has been vocal about many laws, including the Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which it believed would allow companies to deny services to LGBTQ individuals for religious reasons. The company threatened to cancel all of its programs in the state so that no employees traveled there. When that law was changed, Salesforce increased its presence in Indiana. Benioff also spoke against companies that lobbed against tax increases in the San Francisco Bay Area where the company’s headquarters are located, saying that not increasing taxes shows an unwillingness to help the large homeless population in the area.
Other companies publicly opposing the pro-life law include Texas-based dating companies Match.com and Bumble, which are setting up funding to help women get abortions. Uber and Lyft also voiced opposition to the bill, with Lyft donating a million dollars to Planned Parenthood, the nation’s most lucrative abortion business which has been accused of past and present racism and white supremacy by employees. In addition, the video game company Tripwire pressured its CEO and co-founder John Gibson to step down after he tweeted support for the Heartbeat Act, and Shipwright Studios threatened to cancel its contracts with Tripwire over the tweet from Gibson’s personal account.
Proud of #USSupremeCourt affirming the Texas law banning abortion for babies with a heartbeat. As an entertainer I don’t get political often. Yet with so many vocal peers on the other side of this issue, I felt it was important to go on the record as a pro-life game developer.
— John Gibson (@RammJaeger) September 4, 2021
Half of America is pro-life—including millions of women that you’re ignoring. Abortion is violence against the vulnerable & you’ve publicly sided with violence. Sick & regressive, @TripwireInt. Your CEO stood up for human rights but apparently that’s not what your company values. https://t.co/uuJUuj14HL
— Lila Rose (@LilaGraceRose) September 7, 2021
The Texas Heartbeat Act restricts abortion to before a preborn child’s heartbeat is detectable. This is usually at about six weeks, though the heart actually begins beating much earlier in pregnancy between 16 and 22 days post-fertilization. The law is meant to protect these children from unnecessary and violent deaths by abortion. Along with the Heartbeat Act, Texas passed additional laws aimed at helping women care for their children.
Despite reports by major media outlets signaling that Americans don’t support the law, a new Rasmussen poll found that 46% respondents agree with the law, while 43% oppose it.
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