City of Nashville To Give Tax Breaks To Companies Who Cover Out Of State Abortion Expenses For Employees

Photo Credit: Jason Vaughn / The Tennessee Conservative

The Tennessee Conservative [By Jason Vaughn] –

The city of Nashville is offering special tax breaks to businesses that provide compensation for their employees to travel out of state for abortions.

The new legislation, signed Wednesday by both the City of Nashville government and Davidson County government would provide a tax break to companies that provide employee benefits that “include covering the cost of transportation, accommodations, and other related costs when necessary to obtain medical treatment not otherwise available in the employee’s home state…[which] would include reproductive healthcare treatment such as abortion.”

The law is signed in to place just a few days before a statewide ban on abortion goes into effect in Tennessee.

***Click HERE to support Conservative Journalism in Tennessee. We can’t cover stories like this without your support!***

Companies will be required to submit a report on whether they are providing those benefits or not in order to receive the tax break. They must also report “the type and number of jobs the company will create, the number of jobs to be filled by residents of Davidson County, whether projects will use apprentices from programs certified by the U.S. Department of Labor, and the number and types of [workplace safety] violations against the company or any contractor retained on the project.”

The tax break is intended for “companies seeking economic and community development incentive grants and payments in lieu of taxes.”

The legislation goes on to say that “the Metropolitan Council supports the right to abortion access previously established under Roe v. Wade and finds the restrictions upon reproductive rights and private healthcare decisions threaten the safety and wellbeing of the residents of Nashville and Davidson County.”

It reads that the restrictions “particularly [harm] women unable to travel to neighboring jurisdictions where abortion care is safe and legal.”

It continues, “it is important for the residents of Davidson County to know whether companies seeking economic and community development incentive grant agreements and PILOT agreements with the metropolitan government provide their employees with similar access to obtain medical treatment that is otherwise unavailable in their respective home states.”

Nashville leaders are looking for a way to compensate government employees who travel out of state to receive abortions as well.

About the Author: Jason Vaughn, Media Coordinator for The Tennessee Conservative  ~ Jason previously worked for a legacy publishing company based in Crossville, TN in a variety of roles through his career.  Most recently, he served as Deputy Director for their flagship publication. Prior, he was a freelance journalist writing articles that appeared in the Herald Citizen, the Crossville Chronicle and The Oracle among others.  He graduated from Tennessee Technological University with a Bachelor’s in English-Journalism, with minors in Broadcast Journalism and History.  Contact Jason at news@TennesseeConservativeNews.com