Dick’s Sporting Goods may be discriminating against pregnant employees by offering to pay their travel expenses for abortions but no similar benefits for those who choose life for their unborn babies, a conservative legal group said this week.
National Review reports America First Legal filed a civil rights complaint against the company Thursday with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, urging an investigation into its new abortion “benefit.”
Dick’s is one of dozens of major companies that recently promised to give their employees money to abort their unborn babies in response to the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. The new “benefit” from the sporting goods company provides up to $4,000 for travel expenses for an employee, their spouse or dependents to have an abortion.
“Although Title VII prohibits discrimination based on childbirth, DICK’S does not offer an equivalent paid benefit to a mother who has her baby,” America First Legal said in a statement this week.
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Here’s more from National Review:
The legal group claimed that the retailer discriminated against mothers who decide not to terminate their pregnancy by not offering them an equivalent benefit. It called the project “wholly detached” from the company’s business of selling sporting goods and golf equipment, which in turn may “needlessly destroy shareholder value.”
The travel benefit “is properly classified both as compensation and/or as a privilege of employment to a pregnant woman who chooses to abort her child” and denies “any equivalent compensation or benefit to a pregnant woman who chooses life,” AFL argued in a letter to the EEOC.
AFL senior counselor Reed D. Rubinstein slammed the company’s actions as “perverse” in a statement.
“Subsidizing travel for an abortion, while denying an equivalent benefit to a mother welcoming a new baby, is perverse and unlawful,” Rubinstein said. “Dick’s management is an avatar for the rot and danger of corporate wokeness.”
But the sporting goods company is just one of many. Major entertainment companies like Walt Disney, Warner Brothers and Netflix and tech giants like Google, Apple and Microsoft also now offer their employees money to travel for elective abortions. The grocery store chains Giant Eagle and Kroger said they will begin paying employees’ travel costs to abort their unborn babies, too.
Earlier this summer, a legal expert predicted that these companies may face lawsuits in an interview with Reuters. According to the report:
It is likely only a matter of time before companies face lawsuits from states or anti-abortion campaigners claiming that abortion-related payments violate state bans on facilitating or aiding and abetting abortions, according to Robin Fretwell Wilson, a law professor at the University of Illinois and expert on healthcare law.
“If you can sue me as a person for carrying your daughter across state lines, you can sue Amazon for paying for it,” Wilson said.
Most companies couched their pro-abortion stance in terms of “health care,” claiming women need abortions to be healthy and free. But these companies are encouraging the elective, unnecessary killing of unborn babies in abortions through these new benefits.
What women and their babies need is real support, and pro-life advocates are striving to provide it. Along with passing the heartbeat law last year, Texas state lawmakers also increased support for pregnant and parenting mothers and babies, ensuring that they have resources to choose life for their babies. Other pro-life advocates across the U.S. also are working to expand support services for families in need, through pregnancy centers, maternity homes, and even pregnant and parenting mothers in prison.
