Who Benefits? Employer Subsidization of Reproductive Healthcare and Implications for Reproductive Justice

TL;DR

This paper examines how employer subsidies for reproductive healthcare in the U.S. impact reproductive justice, highlighting that while they offer benefits, they may reinforce inequalities and delay childbirth.

Contribution

It provides a critical analysis of employer-sponsored reproductive benefits, questioning their role in advancing or hindering reproductive justice.

Findings

Employer benefits help women delay childbirth and reduce fertility.

Subsidies may reinforce economic and reproductive inequalities.

Reproductive justice requires economic transformation prioritizing care.

Abstract

With the reversal of Roe v. Wade in 2022, many U.S. employers announced they would reimburse employees for abortion-related travel expenses. This action complements increasingly common employer policies subsidizing employee access to assisted reproductive technologies such as in-vitro fertilization and egg freezing. This article reflects on why employers offer these benefits and whether they enhance or undermine reproductive justice. From the employer's perspective, abortion and assisted reproductive technologies help women to plan childbearing around the demands of their jobs. Both are associated with delayed childbirth and reduced fertility, which lower the costs of motherhood to employers. However, firm subsidization of these services does not further reproductive justice because it reifies structures which incentivize women to delay childbirth and reduce fertility, and it reinforces economic and reproductive inequalities. We conclude by questioning whether reproductive justice is possible without transforming the economy so that it prioritizes care over profits.