What you need to know
- The U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling that effectively overturned Roe v. Wade.
- The ruling removes the federal right of women to abortion and delivers that decision to states.
- Google says it will support “unjustified” employee relocations.
On Friday, a U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturned Roe v. Wade, removing federal protections for a pregnant woman’s right to an abortion. While the decision does not make the procedure illegal at the national level, it leaves it to states to enforce their own laws, many of which have banned the practice.
In response to the ruling, Google has issued a letter to its employees, urging them to be respectful and aware of each other. The letter, which was obtained by The Verge, also states that employees can move “without justification,” while encouraging them to seek additional support if necessary.
You can read the full letter below:
Hello everybody,
This morning, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling in Dobbs v.
This is a profound change for the country that deeply affects many of us, especially women. Everyone will respond in their own way, whether they want space and time to process, talk, volunteer outside of work, not want to talk about it at all, or something else entirely. Please consider what your co-workers may feel and, as always, treat each other with respect.
Equity is extraordinarily important to us as a company and we share concerns about the impact this ruling will have on people’s health, lives and careers. We will continue to work to make reproductive health information accessible to our products and will continue to work to protect users’ privacy.
To support Googlers and their dependents, our U.S. benefit plan and health insurance cover out-of-state medical procedures that are not available where an employee lives and works. Googlers can also request the transfer without justification, and those who oversee this process will be aware of the situation. If you need additional support, connect 1: 1 with a people consultant using [link to internal tool redacted].
We will be hosting assistance sessions for Googlers in the US over the next few days. These will be published in Google News.
Please feel free to lean on your Google community for the next few days and continue to take good care of each other.
Android Central has contacted Google for additional feedback and will update this article when we receive a response.
Many other technology companies have focused on employee support. Amazon has previously stated that it would reimburse employees who have to travel for certain medical procedures and treatments (via Reuters). Meta was not immediately available for a response, but the company informed Variety that it would also provide travel refunds “to the extent of the law.”