The Newest ESG Frontier: Reproductive Rights at the Corporate Level

In a world crowded with ESG issues competing for investors’ attention, many are only beginning to contemplate the implications of the imminent Supreme Court decision that is likely to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that legalized abortion. Confluence’s 5^th Annual Advisors Forum featured the panel, “The Newest ESG Frontier: Reproductive Rights at the Corporate Level,” to explore the relevance of the ruling to corporations and investors. The panel was organized with Trillium Asset Management and The Educational Foundation of America (EFA).

Laura Nixon, Program Director at EFA, set the stage with a series of slides illustrating how extensively access to abortion is already restricted in many states. Laws imposing restrictions of abortion providers have forced many clinics to close, increasing travel time and expenses that disproportionately burden lower-income pregnant women who need the services most desperately. Eight states are down to 1 or 2 clinics. In fact, gathering the money to pay for the abortion is the largest barrier to accessing care.

If Roe is indeed overturned, states will be allowed to ban abortion entirely, and about half are expected to do so. This will have extensive and long-lasting repercussions for corporations, as detailed by panelist Shelley Alpern, director of corporate engagement at Rhia Ventures.

She discussed evidence that abortion restrictions contribute to a weakened talent pool, reduced talent mobility, higher turnover, and an economy weakened by a reduction in the women’s labor force participation rate. Rhia’s report, Hidden Value: The Business Case for Reproductive Health, explores these repercussions in depth and argues that companies – especially in a post-Roe environment – need to offer employees comprehensive reproductive health care that insures every form of birth control and abortion, and subsidizes abortion-related travel costs. (An updated version of Hidden Value will be released just following the Supreme Court’s ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the case challenging Roe v. Wade.)

Rhia and its investor allies are also calling on companies to work for the repeal of abortion restrictions and to discontinue supporting the politicians and political committees enacting them. About 40 investors are working in coalition on this issue, a diverse coalition that includes public pension funds, foundations, sustainable investing firms and religious investors. They have collectively filed nearly 30 shareholder proposals in the 2020-2022 proxy seasons addressing corporate policies and political spending related to reproductive health care. Of these, five were withdrawn following the conclusion of negotiated agreements.

Kate Monahan, Director of Shareholder Advocacy at Trillium Asset Management spoke to her firm’s reasons for filing one of these proposals at TJX Corporation, the parent company of TJ Maxx, Marshalls and other brands. Monahan said Trillium took an interest in how TJX is handling reproductive health care in large part due to its workforce demographics – 170,000 employees (77%) of the workforce is female and employed across all fifty states. Trillium also co-filed a shareholder proposal at Home Depot that called out the company for its support of anti-choice politicians.

A strategy session to prepare for reproductive health-related proposals in the 2023 proxy season will be hosted by the Ford Foundation on June 24. To request an invitation, please email Sarnai Chuluunbaatar.

- Shelley Alpern, Director of Corporate Engagement, Rhia Ventures