Hundreds of Google employees are asking the business to expand its abortion health care benefits to contract workers and to tighten privacy protections for Google customers seeking online for abortion-related information.
After the U.S. Supreme Court eliminated the constitutional right to an abortion, the parent company of Google, Alphabet, vowed to cover travel and other health care costs for employees seeking an out-of-state abortion and to assist some workers in relocating. The June judgement overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision has prepared the stage for harsh abortion restrictions or prohibitions in over half of the states in the United States.
Why discussing abortion might suddenly land you in jail
Benefits for abortion services provided by Google and other major businesses do not extend to contract workers, who are prevalent in the tech industry and are typically paid less and have less benefits than full-time employees.
This week, more than 650 employees submitted a letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai and senior Alphabet executives requesting that contractors be included in these benefits. Members of the Alphabet Workers Union, a labor union that has been attempting to gain foothold within the corporation, spearheaded the petition.
In addition, the lawsuit demands that the company cease all political donations and lobbying efforts on behalf of politicians and organizations “responsible for appointing the Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade and continue to violate other human rights issues relating to voting access and gun control.”
The staff want to provide more safety for Google users, such as by restricting adverts that mislead users to anti-abortion “pregnancy crisis” clinics.
According to the petition, the corporation should immediately implement data privacy safeguards for any health-related activity, including abortion-related information, so that it “must never be saved, passed over to law enforcement, or considered as a criminal.”
The recent example of a Nebraska minor facing felony charges for an alleged abortion, charges that prosecutors were able to bring owing to Facebook communications, has prompted concern among privacy and technology experts.
Privacy groups are concerned that when states like as Texas and Oklahoma enact bounty hunter laws to coerce residents into reporting suspected abortions, data collection offers prosecutors an abundance of potential sources of evidence.
Thursday, Google declined to comment on the petition. The business announced in July that it would begin removing automatically information about users who visit abortion clinics or other locations that could cause legal issues. Users have always had the ability to modify their own location records, but Google has announced that it will do so automatically as an added layer of safety.