We Heart: The CEOs Standing up for Abortion Access

Activists and lawmakers have been fighting back against a slew of anti-abortion laws passing through state houses across the country—and 187 CEOs have now joined their ranks.

“Equality in the workplace is one of the most important business issues of our time,” the cohort of executives declared in an open letter that ran as a full-page ad in the New York Times. “When everyone is empowered to succeed, our companies, our communities and our economy are better for it.”

The CEOs—including fashion designers Diane von Furstenberg, Eileen Fisher, Rebecca Minkoff, Gabriela Hearst and Lingua Franca’s Rachelle Hruska; female-focused media companies like New York Magazine’s The Cut and Refinery29; feminist co-working spaces The Riveter, The Jane Club and The Wing; women-centered business like WILDFANG, THINX, TomboyX, Cora and Glossier; corporate champions like WORN’s Nicole Corbett, Rebellious PR’s  Evie Smith and Lesbian Who Tech’s Leanne Pittsford; and advocates like The Second Shift’s Jenny Galluzzo and Gina Hadley, Claire Wasserman and Ashley Louise of Ladies Get Paid, MakeLoveNotPorn’s Cindy Gallop and Ann Duggal of the Female Founders Fund—represent over 108,000 employees.

“Restricting access to comprehensive reproductive care, including abortion, threatens the health, independence and economic stability of our employees and customers,” they wrote. “Simply put, it goes against our values and is bad for business. It impairs our ability to build diverse and inclusive workforce pipelines, recruit top talent across the states and protect the well-being of all the people who keep our businesses thriving day in and out. The future of gender equality hangs in the balance, putting our families, communities, businesses and the economy at risk.” 

You can check out the full-page letter and learn more at dontbanequality.org.

About

Greta Baxter is currently working as a summer editorial intern at Ms. Magazine. While majoring in Political Science and Law at Sciences Po Paris she was the anglophone culture section editor of her schools newspaper, The Sundial Press, and the head of editing and visuals of HeforShe Sciences Po. As a passionate intersectional feminist, she is especially interested in the relationship between gender and health as well as how gender bias and discrimination is embedded in political and legal systems. When she is not talking about gender and looking at what steps forward and backward are being made around the world, she is probably arguing about why sweet breakfast foods are superior to savory breakfast foods. You can follow her on Twitter!