in the United States, companies are increasingly called upon to take a stand

2023-06-30 19:28:22

In her vast boutique on the first floor of a modern shopping center, Diane never stops running. Wedding season is in full swing. With her three young employees, she cuts the flowers, prepares colorful arrangements. Soon, North Carolina, a state in the southern United States, will plunge into heat and humidity. «The season started in the spring and will resume this fall, explains Diana. During the summer, it is far too hot to do anything!»

But Diane has had a subject of concern on her mind for several months other than the weather: abortion. On July 1, a law limiting abortion will come into force in his state. Authorized up to twenty weeks of pregnancy, it will now be prohibited after twelve weeks. Before other new restrictions, depending on the outcome of local elections next year?

Diane takes a dim view of this turn of the screw. Because of his own convictions, certainly, but also for his business. In May, while elected officials were preparing the new law, the florist had signed, with more than 200 other local personalities from the economic world, an open letter calling for not to limit abortion, a decision which “would threaten economic activity in North Carolina” et “our ability to attract talent from the rest of the country”.

The questioning of abortion, a setback for employment?

At a time of full employment – ​​the unemployment rate is 3.7% in the United States – we are fighting for the workforce. Even more so in North Carolina, where the number of unemployed is below the national average (3.4%). Almost everywhere, job offers are displayed, both in town in shops and in front of food factories in the countryside.

Dynamic, North Carolina attracts. But Diane fears a sudden stop: “For now, people are coming, but until when? Especially young people and women. Will they continue to come to study or work here? »

In the United States, it is common to move to another state to attend college or to find a better job. But political considerations increasingly weigh in on Americans’ choices when it comes to packing their bags. However, a poll by the NBC television channel, published on June 22, indicated that 77% of American women aged 18 to 49 were opposed to the questioning, last year, of the federal right to abortion by the Supreme Court.

Large groups also affected

Alongside Diane’s name were, among the signatories of the open letter, a majority of business owners (restaurants, garages, etc.) who are already having difficulty finding staff. But they are not the only players in the economic world to be concerned by the issue of abortion: large companies are increasingly called upon to take a stand.

«Many companies offer their employees in pro-life states to move, at company expense, to a pro-abortion state.we deplore at the National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative think tank in Washington. Additionally, some pay for travel and hotel expenses for their employees traveling to another state to have an abortion. All of this paid for with company capital, which is owned by investors who, like America, are divided on the issue of abortion. »

At general meetings, abortion is now a subject that is often mentioned. Arjuna Capital, a management company specializing in responsible investment, based in Durham, has multiplied resolutions to seek clarification from the CVS pharmacy chain, UPS, but also Meta and Alphabet (artificial intelligence). While not all of them were successful, they confirm a new trend in the business world in the United States.

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A year of reversal of the Supreme Court

On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court overturned its “Roe vs Wade” decision, after being overhauled by ex-President Donald Trump who appointed three conservative judges to it. This judgment guaranteed since 1973 the right to abortion to American women on the whole territory.

States regained their freedom to legislate, and about twenty of them immediately decreed a ban or significant restrictions on access to abortion. Others, on the contrary, have adopted new safeguards.

Abortion is tearing American society apart and could play a pivotal role in the upcoming US presidential election. Re-election candidate President Joe Biden called Saturday, June 24 “Congress to be reinstated” the constitutional right to abortion, which however has little chance of succeeding given the division of the two chambers between Democrats and Republicans.