Disney will cover travel expenses for employees seeking abortions in wake of Roe v. Wade overturn



The Walt Disney Co. said Friday it will cover employee travel expenses related to abortions in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, which places the burden of abortion legality upon individual states to decide, the Washington Post reported.

What are the details?

CNBC obtained the memo sent to Disney employees, and the network reported that it read in part:

We recognize the impact that today’s Supreme Court ruling could have on many Americans and understand that some of you may have concerns about what that might mean for you and your families, as medical and family planning decisions are deeply personal.

Please know that our company remains committed to removing barriers and providing comprehensive access to quality and affordable care for all of our employees, cast members and their families, including family planning and reproductive care, no matter where they live. In fact, we have processes in place so that an employee who may be unable to access care in one location has affordable coverage for receiving similar levels of care in another location. This travel benefit covers medical situations related to cancer treatments, transplants, rare disease treatment and family planning (including pregnancy-related decisions).

States now must determine the legality of abortions.

Disney employs 195,000 people worldwide, the Post said, adding that roughly 80,000 are in Florida.

Florida's governor, Republican Ron DeSantis, signed a bill outlawing abortions after 15 weeks — which goes into effect July 1 — that was patterned after Mississippi's 15-week ban at the center of Friday's Supreme Court ruling on Roe v. Wade, Reuters said.

Anything else?

Disney and DeSantis have been at odds for some time.

In March, the Walt Disney Company released a statement in opposition to Florida's Parental Rights in Education bill — infamously and incorrectly referred to as the "Don't Say Gay" bill — which DeSantis has since signed into law.

The following month, DeSantis signed into law a bill revoking Disney's special district status in Florida. The law — set to take effect in June 2023 — strips Disney of self-governing privileges and a special tax status it's enjoyed for 55 years.

Disney employees speak out: Woke mob has 'hijacked' the company — conservatives, Christians no longer welcome



The Walt Disney Company's wholehearted embrace of the progressive sexual orientation and gender identity movement has rankled not only customers, investors, and Republican politicians in Florida, but now some of the entertainment company's employees are publicly voicing their displeasure.

Speaking with Fox News reporter Raymond Arroyo this week, a handful of Disney employees called out the family entertainment company over its woke activism.

"You can clearly see the magic is gone," one employee said.

"I am deeply saddened by what Disney has chosen to take their stand on politically and just with their money, in general," she continued, noting that she has experienced "such a drastic change" between the time she started working for the company and now.

Another employee said Disney "has made it very clear that conservative Christian voices have no place visiting their parks or working at their parks."

She recalled that over the last year, the company has been "heavy" in its internal communications regarding "things to say" and "things not to say" to visitors in order to avoid hurting people's feelings. Things that cast members were asked not to say allegedly included words such as "he, she, ladies, and gentlemen."

"Basically, we have to be in fear of what we say now," the employee claimed.

Disney employee: The magic is gone www.youtube.com

Yet another employee said that he felt "estranged" by the company over its political stances, which in the short term included its public opposition to Florida's Parental Rights in Education bill.

The bill, recently signed into law, bars discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third-grade classrooms and sets reasonable parameters for discussions in grades thereafter.

The employee said he and many others desired to simply show up at the office and dig into the work, but all the noise surrounding Disney's political agenda made it "increasingly harder" to do so.

"At this point, I believe the company has been hijacked by the liberal left," exclaimed another employee, Jose Castillo, who is also running for Congress in Florida as a Republican.

Castillo has been outspoken in his criticism for several weeks and claims that there is a "silent majority" of Disney employees who oppose the company's activism.

"We need new leadership," he told Fox news. "Our CEO Bob Chapek, he's supposed to be leading the company, not following the woke mob. He has fiduciary duty to the stockholders of this company. That means he has to protect their investment, protect their money. But instead what does he do? He protects the feelings of a few minority workers."

Last month, a group of Disney employees published an open letter directed at the company's management, calling on the company to adopt a politically neutral approach. In the letter, the employees also lamented the top-down silencing of conservative voices.

"Over the last few weeks, we have watched as our leadership has expressed their condemnation for laws and policies we support. We have watched as our colleagues, convinced that no one in the company could possibly disagree with them and grow increasingly aggressive in their demands. They insist that [Disney] take a strong stance on not only this issue but other legislation and openly advocate for the punishment of employees who disagree with them," the employees wrote, later adding, "[Disney] has fostered an environment of fear that any employee who does not toe the line will be exposed and dismissed,"