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If the Chinese Communist Party invades Taiwan, Chinese military-affiliated hackers will likely disrupt critical infrastructure in the U.S.If the Chinese Communist Party invades Taiwan, Chinese military-affiliated hackers will likely disrupt critical infrastructure in the U.S.Amazon will reimburse employees $4,000 if they cross state lines to get an abortion
Amazon is committing to financing the abortions of its employees.
On Monday, the second-largest private employer in the U.S. told its staff that it will pay up to $4,000 annually in travel expenses for “non-life-threatening medical treatments including abortions.”
Reuters reported that Amazon’s decision to subsidize its employees' abortions places the online mega-retailer on a growing list of large corporations with similar policies on the books. Citigroup Inc. and Yelp Inc. both announced that they would subsidize the abortion process for their employees in response to Republican-backed state laws limiting abortion access.
In a similar vein, the popular ride-sharing companies Uber and Lyft previously vowed to cover the legal fees for drivers in Texas who encounter legal difficulties for driving women to abortion clinics, Fortune reported.
The company’s new benefit will have retroactive coverage and is available to both its U.S. employees and their covered dependents who are enrolled in either the Premera or Aetna health plans. The reimbursement benefits are available to employees at all levels of the company. Warehouse workers and executives alike can be reimbursed for expenses incurred in their pursuit of an abortion.
However, in order to qualify for the reimbursement, the individuals seeking to receive an abortion must travel more than 100 miles.
Amazon announced that it would start financing abortions the same day that it stopped offering U.S.-based employees paid time off when they get diagnosed with COVID-19.
On Monday, a draft decision indicating that the U.S. Supreme Court is poised to overturnRoe v. Wade was leaked to the media.
The draft is of the court’s majority opinion and is written by Associate Justice Samuel Alito. It is believed that the opinion had already circulated inside the court prior to it being leaked.
“We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled,” Alito wrote.
“Roe was egregiously wrong from the start. Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences. And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have enflamed debate and deepened division,” Alito continued.
The draft decision is related to an outstanding challenge against a piece of pro-life legislation out of Mississippi.
“The inescapable conclusion is that a right to abortion is not deeply rooted in the Nation’s history and traditions,” Alito concludes. “On the contrary, an unbroken tradition of prohibiting abortion on pain of criminal punishment persisted from the earliest days of common law until 1973.”
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This past Wednesday, Amazon announced that for the first time in the company’s history, it will be charging sellers a “5% fuel and inflation surcharge.”
According to CNN Business, the new fee is being imposed because “inflation has worsened significantly in recent months.”
In a company-wide memo, Amazon said, “In 2022, we expected to return to normalcy as Covid-19 restrictions around the world eased, but fuel and inflation have presented further challenges.”
“It is unclear if these inflationary costs will go up or down, or how long they will persist,” the company said.
Patrick Graham, a spokesperson for the company, said that the fee surcharge applies only to fee rates paid by sellers that choose to use Amazon’s fulfillment services. These services include the storage, packing, and shipping of products.
Reportedly, sellers who do not use Amazon’s fulfillment services will not be impacted.
Amazon’s fee is the latest example of how businesses are reacting to soaring energy costs and the general increased cost of goods and services due to inflation.
Last month, Lyft — the popular ridesharing service —announced that it was adding a surcharge of 55 cents to each ride given in order to offset the surging price of gasoline.
ABC News reported that all of the money being generated through this surcharge will be given directly back to Lyft’s drivers and that it would remain in place for “at least the next 60 days.”
In mid-March, Uber announced a similar initiative to that of their competitor. Uber announced that it would tack on a 45 to 55 cent surcharge on all of its rides and add a 35 to 45 cent surcharge on all Uber Eats deliveries.
However, drivers said the surcharge reimbursements they would be receiving from their employers weren’t enough.
According to a blog from “The Rideshare Guy,” 43% of Uber and Lyft drivers said they were driving less or quitting their rideshare gigs because of the rising cost of fuel.
These rising costs, and the little relief drivers received, prompted them to organize a protest in front of Uber’s Manhattan headquarters.
The new surcharge Amazon is implementing on its sellers could trickle down and affect consumers as retailers seek to pass along the rising cost of hosting their businesses on Amazon.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics said that suppliers raised their prices by 11.2% in March as inflation raised 8.5% year-over-year.
In the company-wide memo, Amazon said, “Like many, we have experienced significant cost increases and absorbed them, wherever possible, to reduce the impact on our selling partners. When we did increase fees, we were focused on addressing permanent costs and ensuring our fees were competitive with those of other service providers.”
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