Hollywood’s major studios responded to the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade on Friday by informing employees that travel costs to obtain abortions or other reproductive health costs will be covered or reimbursed.
Disney, Sony, Paramount Global, Netflix, Comcast and Warner Bros. Discovery informed employees or are preparing to inform staff that they will reimburse travel expenses for those looking to obtain abortions across state lines, should it be necessary, TheWrap has learned.
TheWrap has reached out to other Hollywood studios and will update this post as more responses come in.
“Paramount will support – as we always have – the choices our employees make about their own health care. This includes the reproductive health and family-building benefits that help make our company a welcoming place to work,” Paramount Global heads Bob Bakish and Nancy Philips said in part in a statement sent to staff.
A Netflix spokesperson said, “Netflix offers a travel reimbursement coverage for full-time U.S. employees and their dependents who need to travel for cancer treatment, transplants, gender affirming care, or abortion – through our U.S. health plans. This is a $10,000 lifetime allowance per employee and/or their dependents per service.”
Sony Pictures Entertainment employees in the U.S. have access to healthcare services, including travel costs, through their healthcare plans, and an individual told TheWrap that Sony Group Companies are “committed to the health, safety and physical and emotional wellbeing of our employees and their families and believe employees and their dependents should have equal access to health care and medical services, including reproductive healthcare, regardless of their location.”
Though Disney has a large number of Disney World based in Florida where abortion is expected to be banned, the company has communicated with employees Friday that they recognize the impact of the SCOTUS ruling and are committed to providing comprehensive health coverage and family planning no matter where they live. And they’ll additionally have access to affordable coverage for receiving care in other locations, including for family planning and “pregnancy-related” decisions.
Comcast does have a travel benefit that covers reproductive costs for both Comcast and NBCUniversal employees, as well as a travel benefit for medical services and procedures not available near an employee’s home, an individual with knowledge said.
“Warner Bros. Discovery is committed to offering our employees across the country access to consistent and comprehensive healthcare services. In light of the Supreme Court’s recent decision, we immediately expanded our healthcare benefits options to cover transportation expenses for employees and their covered family members who need to travel to access abortion and reproductive care,” a Warner Bros. Discovery spokesperson said.
Warner Bros. Discovery’s chief people and culture officer Adria Alpert Romm also sent a letter to employees that “we know that these matters are private – just like any other healthcare decision or procedure – and will be treated with the same respect and confidentiality.”
A representative for Meta, the parent company for Facebook, told TheWrap, “We intend to offer travel expense reimbursements, to the extent permitted by law, for employees who will need them to access out-of-state health care and reproductive services. We are in the process of assessing how best to do so given the legal complexities involved.”
Other companies such as Amazon, Neon and United Talent Agency had previously indicated they would be covering reproductive healthcare costs for employees traveling across state lines. Their statements came after a leaked draft of Friday’s Supreme Court decision became available in May.
Hollywood’s unions have also condemned the decision, including SAG-AFTRA, the WGA, the DGA and IATSE.
“Anyone who believes in the right of women to make their own healthcare decisions should be outraged with today’s archaic and dangerous ruling. Every American deserves and is entitled to an equal right to healthcare choice. Today, the United States Supreme Court abandoned that principle in a ruling that empowers states to enact draconian restrictions on healthcare choice and destroy lives, if we allow it. We will continue to fight to ensure the overwhelming majority voice of the people is heard in state and federal legislative bodies. We have the collective power to make certain today’s decision does not overcome the will of the people. SAG-AFTRA will fight to protect women’s right to choice and self-determination that has been recognized for decades,” the Screen Actors Guild said in a statement.
“We know well the catastrophic consequences that follow when authoritarians legislate control over our wombs, bodies, and lives. Taking away the option to receive compassionate reproductive care in the form of safe, legal abortions will disproportionally harm working-class people, force unwilling parents into poverty, worsen the already unacceptable maternal mortality crisis, imprison innocents for their biological functions (including miscarriages), and cut short far too many bright careers and lives,” IATSE said in part in a statement.
“Today’s Supreme Court decision is a giant step backwards for our country and puts women’s lives at risk,” DGA president Lesli Linka Glatter. “It denies countless women the most basic of their human rights – the right to autonomy over their own bodies. We are committed to making sure our members continue to have access and ability to make their own reproductive decisions and determine the path they set for their own lives. We strongly condemn this ruling and stand in solidarity with so many others speaking out to decry this travesty.”
“The Board of the Writers Guild of America West and the Council of the Writers Guild of America, East join to condemn the Supreme Court’s decision Friday morning overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that protected reproductive rights and the freedom of choice,” the WGA said in a staetment. “Once again, this court has chosen to ignore public opinion and to violate the privacy and health of a vast percentage of the American population. This decision will lead to injury, death and the denial of basic human rights that allow Americans to lead the lives they choose without fear of interference or bodily harm. We now look to the states to enforce existing law or to act to pass new legislation that will protect against the Supreme Court’s misguided and harmful decision.”
Already on Friday four different states have enacted so called “trigger laws” that have immediately outlawed abortion in those states. Individuals across Hollywood, as well as President Biden and former President Barack Obama condemning the Supreme Court’s decision.
