(LifeSiteNews) – Walmart told its employees on Friday that it will now cover the cost of abortion and related travel expenses in cases up until the point of “fetal viability.”
The health care plans of the largest private employer in the U.S. will now pay for abortion “when there is a health risk to the mother, rape or incest, ectopic pregnancy, miscarriage or lack of fetal viability,” according to an internal memo, as reported by CNBC.
The company will also pay the cost of travel for an abortion if an employee or their family member who is insured through Walmart cannot legally obtain one within 100 miles of their residence.
While the point of fetal viability is not clear-cut, and has shifted down in recent years due to technological advances, medical consensus now sets it at 23-24 weeks. The great majority of abortions are performed well before the period of viability, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Walmart’s decision echoes similar moves to cover the cost of abortion-related travel expenses, if not the cost of abortion itself, by major corporations such as Amazon, Apple, CVS Health, Starbucks, Nike, Disney, and Mastercard, in the wake of Roe v. Wade’s reversal.
Walmart previously covered the cost of abortions only in the case that the health of the mother “would be in danger” if she carried her child to term, or in the case that the child “could not survive the birthing process, or death would be imminent after birth,” according to the company’s employee handbook.
Donna Morris, Walmart’s chief people officer who sent the email memo announcing the new policy, said the company made changes to its healthcare plans after “listening to our associates about what’s important to them.”
The mega-corporation is also launching a “center for fertility services,” and multiplying its financial support for adoptions, from $5,000 to $20,000, the memo revealed.
The world’s largest company by revenue, Walmart locations practically blanket the U.S., with 90 percent of Americans living within 10 miles of one of its more than 4,700 stores. Its headquarters are located in Arkansas, where abortion is now banned in all cases except those necessary to save the life of the mother.