Google employees demand abortion protections for contract workers

Hundreds of Google employees are petitioning the company to extend its abortion healthcare benefits to contract workers and to strengthen privacy protections for Google users searching for abortion information online.

Google parent company Alphabet had pledged to pay travel and other health care costs for employees seeking an out-of-state abortion and to help some workers relocate after the US Supreme Court repealed the constitutional right to an abortion. The June decision overturning 1973’s Roe v. Wade ruling has paved the way for severe abortion restrictions or bans in nearly half of the U.S. states.

The benefits for abortion services offered by Google and other tech companies don’t cover contract workforces, which are common in the tech industry and often get paid less and have fewer perks than full-time employees.