Who Benefits? Employer Subsidization of Reproductive Healthcare and implications for Reproductive Justice

With the reversal of Roe v. Wade in 2022, many US employers announced they would reimburse employees for abortion-related travel expenses. This action complements increasingly common employer policies subsidizing employee access to assisted reproductive technologies such as in vitro fertilization and egg freezing. This article reflects on why employers offer these benefits and whether they enhance or undermine reproductive justice. From the employer’s perspective, abortion and assisted reproductive technologies help women to plan childbearing around the demands of their jobs. Both are associated with delayed childbirth and reduced fertility, which lower the costs of motherhood to employers. However, firm subsidization of these services does not further reproductive justice because it reifies structures that incentivize women to delay childbirth and reduce fertility, and it reinforces economic and reproductive inequalities. The article concludes by questioning whether reproductive justice is possible without transforming the economy so that it prioritizes care over profits.HIGHLIGHTS Contradictions between production and reproduction manifest as a motherhood penalty.Support for fertility-regulating technologies lowers the motherhood penalty for firms.Employer support for these technologies exacerbates economic and social inequities.These policies reinforce the systemic pressure to mold reproduction to fit labor markets.Reproductive justice requires broad systemic changes that prioritize care over profits.