American View: Why Your Company Can’t Ignore America’s Repeal of Civil Rights

Management

And so it’s come to pass. I published a column seven weeks ago titled We’ll All Be Talking About Abortion in the Office Now, Like It or Not warning about what would happen when (not if) the U.S. Supreme Court overruled Roe vs. Wade. Our agenda-driven packed court did exactly that on Friday, 24^th June. It was all we talked about in the office for the rest of the day. It was the only topic discussed around the dinner table. It was the most cited topic flooding social media throughout the weekend. Of course we’re talking about this; the negative ramifications of this reversal in Americans’ human rights are too daunting to ignore.

I’m not here to make some big “I told you so” strut today. I hate being right about this. No, I’m here to sound the alarm: if your organisation hasn’t already war-gamed the worst-case scenario for this outcome, then there’s no time to lose. Recall your senior leaders. Activate your crisis management centre. Summon your corporate lawyers back from whatever suburb of hell they commute to work from. It’s well past time to hammer out your organisation’s official plan for how you’re going to adapt to an Overturned Roe World™.

I fully appreciate that readers outside the U.S.A. might not see this domestic problem as anything but good opportunity to make fun of America’s self-destructive culture and dysfunctional political machine. Most nations worldwide have steadily increased women’s access to reproductive health over the last fifty years. Our next-door neighbour’s Supreme Court decriminalized abortion last summer. You’d think that the rest of the world could safely “tut, tut” us and turn their attention back to more wholesome pursuits.

To that, I contend that our “little drama” is going to have an unwanted and painfully disruptive downstream effect throughout global business. For years to come Remember, only 38 of the mega-corps on Fortune’s “Global 500” list are headquartered outside the United States. Put another way, 92.4% of the corporations with the largest revenue in the world are U.S.-based. That means the disruptions that rock U.S.-based companies are going to affect their foreign branches, partners, suppliers, and customers. Can’t be helped.

And by “disruption,” I mean “significant turmoil” as the millions of American employees who are negatively affected by the Supremes’ latest gutting of civil rights will be unavailable to do their best work, be that cutting deals, making plans, providing services, or whatever. They’re going to be preoccupied, scrambling to escape a hostile (and even potentially lethal) environment rather than focusing on their job responsibilities.

If you’re one of those MBA types who demands all their people “leave their personal issues at home” during the workday, have you considered getting in the sea? Harvard Business School recommends it as a “best practice.” Take my word for it!

For example, consider the “Heartbeat Bill” that the state of Ohio passed in 2019. The overturning of Roe allows this monstrosity of a law to go into full effect. As the Guardian pointed out at the time, this scientifically bankrupt law “… requires doctors to ‘reimplant an ectopic pregnancy’ into a woman’s uterus – a procedure that does not exist in medical science – or face charges of ‘abortion murder.’” [1]

Imagine, then, that your international mega-corp has an outpost in Ohio. Your team in London is just about to launch a new product that will make your company millions. The only thing stopping you from going live is a mandatory regulatory process that must be completed by the Ohio office. Catastrophically, instead of working on your project, the Ohio team is stalled because one of their critical members – let’s call her “Jane” – has been diagnosed with an ectopic pregnancy. If she doesn’t get medical treatment immediately, it’s highly likely Jane will die.

Meanwhile, Ohio’s anti-abortion law “… appears to punish doctors, women and children as young as 13 with ‘abortion murder’ if they ‘perform or have an abortion’. This crime is punishable by life in prison. Another new crime, ‘aggravated abortion murder’, is punishable by death, according to the bill.”

Our hypothetical essential employee Jane can’t get the essential medical treatment she needs anywhere in the nonessential state of Ohio. Anyone providing Jane the medical care she needs faces arrect, conviction, and life in prison. Jane’s only shot at survival is to find a medical provider in another state that’s willing to help her and has the availability to take her on as a patient ASAP. Jane must then travel out of state as swiftly as possible (possibly across the country!), likely at her own expense. Jane will miss work, rack up debt, burn personal leave, and possibly set herself up for arrest and/or being sued upon her return. As Bloomberg Law pointed out:

“Thirteen states have what are known as ‘trigger laws,’ which kick in and ban abortion if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe … What’s not clear is whether states can enforce their laws beyond their own borders – in particular, by trying to stop their residents from traveling across state lines to terminate a pregnancy. Trying to impose their abortion policies upon other states is what one legal expert calls “the next frontier in anti-abortion legislation.”

Star Trek et al urged us to boldly explore strange new worlds, not develop strange new ways to dehumanize and persecute our fellow man.

In such a case, our essential colleague Jane is facing a world of hurt for something that was no fault of her own. About 1.5 out of every 100 pregnancies are ectopic. They’re not caused by “sinful behaviour;” they’re natural biological complications that the patient has no control over. Jane didn’t do anything “wrong” … yet her state’s legislators declared her into a felon by virtue of their political ideology and staggering ignorance.

So, our Jane will be forced to navigate a nightmare scenario with few (if any) ways to escape unscathed. Even if things work out for the best, the focus, time, and resources Jane will require to deal with her emergent problem will surely remove her from her job right when her contributions are essential to her employer … which will negatively impact her colleagues overseas who depend on her.

If Jane’s not wealthy – as in, “hop in your private jet and pay cash for treatment in a Swiss clinic” wealthy – she might find her life ruined by her state government after her treatment is complete. Jane might be declared a felon, even if she’s not imprisoned, thereby ruining her chances of keeping her current job (or landing a new one). Jane might be bankrupted paying medical bills and/or court expenses. Jane could well cut off from family and friends. Oh, and Jane might be terrorized by sadistic online “hate mobs.” All because a fertilized egg didn’t implant properly.

Little wonder, then, that our Jane won’t be focused on her company’s bottom line. People aren’t robots; Maslow’s hierarchy isn’t optional. Now multiply Jane’s hypothetical by about 76 million [1] women who might be able to get pregnant in the U.S. and you start to grasp the potential scope of the problem.

Sure, this change in American law doesn’t directly affect European businesses or consumers … unless they have workers stationed in the U.S. Or if they depend on things to happen in the U.S. Or if they’re trying to secure material from the U.S. Or ship material to the U.S. Or just need to visit the U.S. for some reason.

Mind you, Jane’s hypothetical is just one nightmare scenario out of dozens that might now come to pass in a post-Roe America. The impact on American women, their families, their communities, and their employers could well snowball into something that causes severe disruption to business operations on a global scale by virtue of how deeply intertwined the United States economy is with everyone else’s.

To say nothing of our major cultural exports.

In his written opinion, severely conflicted Supreme Court Judge Clarence Thomas wrote that his Roe vs. Wade decision should trigger additional rolls-backs of civil rights in America. “In future cases, we should reconsider all of this court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell.”

Per the Guardian’s synopsis: “Griswold v Connecticut established a married couple’s right to use contraception without government interference in 1965. The court ruled in the 2003 case of Lawrence v Texas that states could not criminalize sodomy, and Obergefell v Hodges established the right for same-sex couples to marry in 2015.”

The American right-wing fringe has been pushing hard the last several years to un-person LGBTQIA+ people. Attempts to criminalize their mere existence are part of the broader effort to force conformity with an imagined, non-existent historical utopia where every American was white, middle class, Christian, conservative, and unchallenged for their place on top of all social, political, and economic hierarchies. By employing the law to block transexual people’s access to healthcare, dissolving same-sex marriages, banning access to media that challenges their worldview, and terrifies “non-standard” citizens into avoiding public spaces, these pushes to repeal citizens’ civil rights are designed to bring about an autocratic, one-dimensional society.

Dozens of American corporations – including Global 500 mega-corps – have announced new policies to support and protect their employees from these legal manoeuvres, from Activision to Zoom (and good on them for doing so!). That said, we’re expecting a major backlash from pro-patriarchy states like Texas, as powerful companies refuse to fall in line with states’ regressive civil rights agenda. Expect lawsuits, retaliatory legislation, personnel relocations, plant and office closures, mass resignations, and a host of other problems as worker’s rights and protections continue to be stripped away piecemeal.

The question isn’t “will my organisation be affected” by this madness in America, it’s “when and how much will my organisation be affected?” If you haven’t already started preparing for this godawful mess, now’s the time. Sound the alarm, light the signal fires, or whatever you normally do to assemble your key staff and start hammering out contingency plans.

This is going to be an ugly time. Ignoring our current insanity isn’t an option for businesses connected – even indirectly – to the U.S.A. Most of us living here are appalled by what’s happened, but there’s nothing for it now but to work out how best to navigate this nightmarish “new normal.” That’s our grim new challenge … and, unfortunately, yours too.

[1] Emphasis added.

[2] Based on this estimate from the World Health Organisation of the number of women aged 15-49 in the United States.

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