The decision will require multi-state employers to monitor how various state laws might impact employees and employer-sponsored benefits. HR Policy will conduct a member survey on employer health plans and responses and hold a webinar on the decision in July. Details are forthcoming.
The decision finds: “Abortion presents a profound moral question. The Constitution does not prohibit the citizens of each State from regulating or prohibiting abortion. Roe and Casey arrogated that authority. We now overrule those decisions and return that authority to the people and their elected representatives.” Over twenty states currently have laws or constitutional amendments that would allow the states to take action to restrict or prohibit abortion in some form, many predating Roe.
HR Policy has created a resource page for employers, including a link to a useful employer checklist by Epstein Becker Green, and a recent Kaiser Family Foundation report on the Employer Coverage of Travel Costs for Out-of-State Abortion is here.
Decision explicitly limited to abortion rights only. Like the leaked draft, the final decision states “[n]othing in this opinion should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion. … rights regarding contraception and same-sex relationships are inherently different from the right to abortion because the latter (as we have stressed) uniquely involves what Roe and Casey termed ‘potential life.’”
Stay tuned for future communications from the Association on details regarding a survey and a member-wide call where we will provide a policy analysis and discuss outstanding questions and the anticipated HR and legal implications.