Civil Rights Complaint Filed Against Dick’s Sporting Goods For Employee Abortion Benefits

Image Credit: Mike Mozart / CC

The Tennessee Conservative [By Jason Vaughn] –

After the Supreme Court’s pivotal decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade, many corporations across the country began to seek out ways to get around abortion bans that were expected in many states. The latest business to come under fire for such a practice is Dick’s Sporting Goods after they announced that the company would provide funding for female employees to receive abortions.

Dick’s instituted a policy that would allow women to be reimbursed for up to $4,000 worth of expenses for travel to have an abortion. America First Legal Foundation has filed a federal civil rights complaint and is calling on the government to open an investigation into the policy, saying that it is a form of illegal employment discrimination because the same reimbursement option is not available for women who choose to keep their babies.

“We recognize people feel passionately about this topic – and that there are teammates and athletes who will not agree with this decision,” stated Lauren Hobart, CEO of Dick’s.

She continued, “However, we also recognize that decisions regarding health and families are deeply personal and made with thoughtful consideration. We are making this decision so our teammates can access the same health care options, regardless of where they live, and choose what is best for them.”

America First Legal Foundation is also calling out Dick’s for “using racial balancing and quotas in hiring and promotion” by recruiting, hiring, and/or promoting workers simply based on their race, color, national origin, or sex just to fill a quota. They argue that this is not only a violation of civil rights but it also “violating their fiduciary duty to shareholders by spending the Company’s funds to advance idiosyncratic political and social views.”

Dick’s is not the only major corporation to adopt this new abortion benefits policy. Businesses who have announced the recent policy addition include Citigroup, Disney, Warner Bros, Meta, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Lyft, Uber, Intuit, Buzzfeed Inc., Levi Strauss and Co., Starbucks, Yelp, Microsoft, Apple, Mastercard, Inc., Netflix, Airbnb, Doordash, T-Mobile, and Zillow. 

As Tennessee also looks to welcome Ford Motor Company’s Blue Oval City near Memphis, Ford has also made reference to their coverage of abortions through their employee health care plans. 

Ford spokesperson Catherine Hargett said, “We believe that medical decisions are best left to individuals and their medical providers, not their employers.”

American First Legal Foundation, started in February 2021 by former senior Trump White House Advisor Stephen Miller, is prepared to fight the new policies, stating that they are ready to “wage a forceful defense of our rights, our country, and our cherished American way of life” against “progressives [who] have used the court system to attack our founding documents, undermine the rule of law, and erode our nation’s most cherished principles and traditions.”

Senior Counselor Reed D. Rubinstein says that the new policy is in opposition to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which prohibits discrimination in the workplace and was amended to include pregnancy rights via the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 which “prohibits discrimination based on childbirth.”

“Subsidizing travel for an abortion, while denying an equivalent benefit to a mother welcoming a new baby, is perverse and unlawful,” said Rubenstein.

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