A group of pro-abortion businesses has filed an amicus brief with the Texas Supreme Court, claiming the state’s pro-life law costs billions of dollars in lost business.
The effort, which is primarily being led by Bumble, said the medical exceptions present in Texas’ law are too vague. Bumble, a dating site based in Austin, has openly positioned itself as a pro-abortion business, even going so far as to create a fund to support their employees’ abortion-related travel. It’s not entirely surprising; after all, it’s cheaper to pay for a pregnant employee to kill their preborn children than it is to support them.
The brief is being filed in the Zurawski v. Texas suit, in which a group of women – led by lead plaintiff Amanda Zurawski – claim the state’s laws protecting preborn children put their lives at risk. Zurawski claimed she needed an abortion after being diagnosed with cervical incompetence at 18 weeks; though the doctors treating her were neglectful in their duties, Zurawski did not need an abortion. An induced abortion — the intentional killing of the baby — has never been the standard treatment for an incompetent cervix.
“Many times, if infection is ruled out, women can be treated with a stitch, called a cerclage, which is placed in her cervix to hold the unborn baby in until he or she can survive outside the mother,” Dr. Christina Francis, board member and CEO-elect of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, previously explained to Live Action News. “An attentive physician should be able to detect signs of infection early and, if present, provide the appropriate treatment – which would be induction of labor. This treatment is not prevented by any abortion restriction in the country.”
Currently, the lawsuit is asking for the state of Texas to create a “binding interpretation” of the already-existing medical exceptions in the law, and allow doctors to exercise “good faith judgment” in committing abortions.
Numerous other Texas-based companies signed onto Bumble’s brief, including South by Southwest, Zilker Properties, ATX Television Festival, and more.
“We feel it’s our duty not just to provide our workforce with access to reproductive health care, but to speak out – and speak loudly – against the retrogression of women’s rights,” Bumble founder and CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd said in a statement. “Texas’s confusing medical exceptions increase business costs, drive away talent, and threaten workforce diversity and well-being.”
The brief cites research from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR), which claimed that pro-life laws cost billions of dollars across the country by reducing labor force participation and required time off from work. In Texas specifically, IWPR said the law will cost $15 billion. “Texas’ abortion ban is a giant step backwards and will impede women’s economic and social progress. Restrictions like these will also have a devastating impact on state economies and the financial security of women and their families,” Dr. C. Nicole Mason, IWPR President and CEO, said in a press release. “Texas is restricting its own economic growth in its quest to restrict women’s freedom.”
But this research is two years old, predating the fall of Roe v. Wade, and what goes unsaid by both Bumble and IWPR itself is that it merely affirms the prevalence of pregnancy discrimination in the workplace.
Businesses have no reason to be accommodating and supportive of pregnant employees when they can merely pressure them into an abortion instead. Indeed, companies like Walmart, Google, Nike, UPS, and Planned Parenthood have all been accused of pushing women out of their jobs for becoming pregnant. In the military, pregnant women say they have been pressured to abort or face losing their jobs. Politicians, pharmaceutical companies, car dealerships, and countless others have attempted to force pregnant women into abortions under threat of job loss.
So yes, women either have abortions or are forced to leave the workforce – because pregnancy discrimination is rampant. Rather than addressing this discrimination, organizations like Bumble and IWPR would prefer for women to just continue undergoing abortions, even if it means pregnant and parenting employees are forced to stop working.
