South Dakota’s Governor and Legislature have taken no action to ensure that its favored trust industry isn’t supporting the murderous Russian regime’s war against Ukraine. So don’t expect the state to impose any sanctions on the bank that founded South Dakota’s contemporary model of usury as economic growth and helped spawn our trust industry, Citigroup, for helping its employees in oppressive states travel to terminate their pregnancies:
“In response to changes in reproductive healthcare laws in certain states in the U.S., beginning in 2022 we provide travel benefits to facilitate access to adequate resources,” Citi (C) said in a letter to shareholders Wednesday as part of its annual proxy statement.
Citi’s new policy covers employees’ expenses when traveling to seek an abortion, including plane tickets and hotels, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. The company declined to comment beyond what it published in its proxy [David Goldman, “Citi’s Response to Abortion Bans: We’ll Pay for Workers to Travel,” CNN, 2022.03.16].
Citigroup has been making money in Sioux Falls since 1981, and now some of that money is helping women in Texas and other right-wing enclaves escape and end their pregnancies—or, as consistent Republican legislators ought to be screaming, “killing the defenseless“!!! But since South Dakota Republicans refuse to take their campaign agitprop to its logical legal conclusion—drop the statutory distinction of “fetal homicide” from “homocide”, classify abortion as first-degree murder, subject doctors who perform abortion to life imprisonment or the death penalty, and prosecute and imprison women for contract killing if they seek abortions—we can’t really expect them to tell Citigroup to leave Sioux Falls…
…or take any practical stand against other popular companies that are supporting their employees’ murder of babies reproductive choice:
- Apple, which has a big presence in Texas, confirmed to Axios that its health insurance policies cover abortions, including travel fees if needed.
- It’s possible other employers have similar health insurance policies, but they haven’t been talking about them.
- The CEO of Match, another dating company, funded a program with Planned Parenthood to ensure her Texas-based employees receive safe and legal care.
- Dating app company Bumble helped create a relief fund, in conjunction with advocacy groups, to help women pay for reproductive care in Texas [Emily Peck, “Ignoring Abortion Access Is Getting Harder for Companies,” Axios, 2022.03.18].
Texas Republican Party chair Matt Rinaldi is calling on Texans to boycott Citigroup for this “appalling” policy. South Dakota boycotts companies who boycott Israel, but faced with politically objectionable behavior from one of South Dakota’s corporate behemoths, South Dakota Republicans will likely default to senior Republican legislator Al Novstrup’s mealy-mouthed position that boycotts break relationships. So expect South Dakota Republicans to keep swiping their Citi cards, fingering their iPhones, and looking for love on Match.com.
Bonus Bother for Anti-Bank Bigots: If South Dakota Republicans want to bolster their toothless anti-woke whimpers against big banks, they should read Citigroup’s line right after the statement about paying for travel for abortions:
We continue to broaden gender affirmation medical coverage and incorporate it in our basic medical plan coverage around the world [Citigroup Inc., “2022 Notice of Annual Meeting and Proxy Statement,” filed with Securities and Exchange Commission, 2022.03.15].
But in the same paragraph, Citigroup says it supports employees’ fertility treatments, adoption, and surrogacy:
We have enhanced our fertility coverage and our support of young families however they are formed. Citi’s new Adoption and Surrogacy Assistance Program provides reimbursement to help with certain expenses in the adoption of a child or surrogacy parenting arrangement [Citigroup, 2022.03.15].
So Citigroup supports women, and men becoming women, and men and women who want to have babies. That sounds too morally complicated for any South Dakota Republican to figure out. Republicans will find it much easier to default to their core principle: if put money in our pockets, we’ll shut up and dance.
and there you have it: it was corporate America that invented the Feminist Movement.
In the fifties, wages for men were high. A single earner could be expected to support his whole family.
American industry looked around for a cheap source of labor and noticed women.
Women were told that homemaking and child rearing were drudgery and true fulfillment would be found on factory production lines.
To that end, Big Pharma supplied drugs to suppress ovulation and lactation, and policies to subsidize childcare services were enacted. Abortion had to be legal, too. All obstacles to putting women to work, (at lower pay at that time, too) had to be eliminated.
The influx of women into the workforce exerted downward pressure on the wages of men. It was no longer possible to support a middle class lifestyle on one income.
The result has been exhausted women, latchkey children, and a deterioration of families. Women were duped. That job that was going to be so liberating and empowering feels more like enslavement. We were duped.
And now Citigroup, rather than support women with generous maternity benefits (hey, that’s expensive) will happily pay for abortions, Plus travel. Isn’t that nice?
1. A pregnant woman is the patient.
2. Ectopic pregnancies kill women.
3. Rich women have full reproductive rights while women at the lower income margins suffer chilling effects on those rights. Women in Texas, Wyoming and South Dakota who can afford it simply jump on a plane and fly to Albuquerque, Minneapolis, Denver or elsewhere for their procedures. Imagine a woman on the Standing Rock or Pine Ridge doing that.
4. South Dakota’s repeated attempts to restrict access to medical care are not only mean-spirited, they’re discriminatory anti-choice extremism.
5. “Pro-life” is simply code for white people breeding. African-Americans terminate pregnancies at about the same per capita rate as white people do but don’t take their jobs. Latinas, however, have fewer abortions per capita but the extreme white wing laments it’s hemorrhaging jobs to Latinos.
6. No foetus in the United States has any civil rights until the third trimester. Republicans preach civil rights for human zygotes but deny the protections of the First, Fourth and Ninth Amendments to people who enjoy cannabis.
7. Ending reproductive rights in red states is Balkanizing women’s medical care.
8. An acorn is not an oak tree so a foetus is no more an unborn child than it is an unborn grandparent.
9. Republican politicians drive their anti-women crusade simply to raise campaign dollars.
Of the 25 best states for women 22 of them are blue according to the latest rankings from WalletHub.
My home state of South Dakota still holds 51st place for the number of women who own businesses, 49th in percentage of women who voted in 2020 but tied for 1st with North Dakota for lowest unemployment among women. WalletHub sez jobs are still hard to find in Albuquerque and Rapid City but less difficult in Sioux Falls even as New Mexico and my home state see negative growth in gross domestic product. Sioux Falls is the 12th hardest working city in the United Snakes but is that even healthy?
https://www.thepublicopinion.com/story/news/columns/2022/02/22/rick-kahler-workaholism-emotional-pain-not-money/6857987001/
Idaho’s christo-fascists financially incentivized rape. Each family member can claim a minimum of $20,000 for a woman who aborts after a rape – for up to 4 years after the incident. The christo-fascists are as evil as Putin.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/03/idaho-abortion-bill-rapist-families
Citi depends on women to produce a profound amount of profit each and every year. It is women, young women of child bearing age, who make that company go and grow. They are not being “progressive” by providing support for a woman seeking an abortion. They are merely protecting their bottom line. Their practive is “good business”. As Governor Noem says, “South Dakota is open for business and government will not tell you how to run your business.”
Anne strikes me as a Republican ideologue 1st, masquerading as a feminist.
Governor Gretchen Whitmer is no Cowgirl!
@GovWhitmer, today
No matter what happens to Roe, I am going to fight like hell and use all the tools I have as governor to ensure reproductive freedom is protected. Today in court, I represent all those who deserve the freedom to choose their own future. That’s a fight worth having.