Starbucks to cover abortion travel costs for employees

Starbucks will cover the costs for employees who must travel for abortion and gender-affirming procedures, the coffee chain announced on Monday, joining a growing list of companies to offer the benefit.

The Seattle-based company will reimburse transportation expenses for workers enrolled for its medical insurance and their dependents who don’t have access to the procedures within 100 miles of their home. 

After several states enacted restrictive reproductive health care laws, companies including Amazon, Apple, Citigroup, Microsoft and Salesforce said they would reimburse workers who get abortions in other states. A ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court that would effectively strike down Roe v. Wade could pressure additional companies to similarly reimburse employees. 

“Like many of you, I’m deeply concerned by the draft Supreme Court opinion related to the constitutional right to abortion that was first established by Roe v. Wade,” Sara Kelly, Starbucks’ acting executive vice president for employee resources, said in a blog post. 

The company offers health coverage to its 240,000 part- and full-time workers at its U.S. stores, but could not immediately say how many employees are enrolled for the benefit. 

A Starbucks spokesperson also did not respond to questions about whether the expanded coverage would extend to workers at stores that have voted to unionize or are in the process of doing so. Starbucks earlier this month hiked wages and expanded training at its corporate-owned stores, but not at more than 50 recently unionized locations or those where votes are in the works.