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When the current iteration of the United States Supreme Court banned protection for abortions under Roe v Wade, it became the first country to remove protections for legal, safe abortions in more than 25 years...
Even Afghanistan, under the Taliban, allows abortion to save the pregnant person’s life. In fact, only 15 countries worldwide have a total ban on abortions, making the US’s recent decision a surprising one – and one that has impacted the physical, psychological and mental health of women not just Stateside, but worldwide, as people came to grips with the implications of the decision.
We won’t go into some of the harrowing stories to come out of America in recent months but, suffice to say that even reading about them may have had a detrimental effect on your employees’ mental health. Particularly as the decision has triggered some British MPs to come out in support of the decision, many businesses have moved to offer some reassurance at company level, at least.
TV station Channel 4 and the Co-op both offer it for all their employees who can get pregnant, as does Monzo (a bank popular with the Gen Z demographic), ASOS and content provider LadBible.
With 25% of conceptions in England and Wales ending in abortion in 2021 and a similar amount (24%) ending in miscarriage according to the UK Government, and most pregnancies occurring in women aged 30-34, that means a high proportion of your employees will experience pregnancy loss at some point during their working life. And while the numbers on women who choose to give birth and adopt their baby out are hard to find due to privacy issues and the stigma still surrounding that choice, it’s important to mention and consider when thinking of employee needs.
Whether that loss is by choice due to circumstances or by natural loss is irrelevant – the loss of a pregnancy, whether wanted or unwanted, can have devastating consequences for people, including those whose partners have lost pregnancies.
HR Grapevine spoke to a few companies whose pregnancy loss policies include all types of loss, and we have compiled some helpful tips for you if you haven’t crafted such a policy, or if it needs to be updated to be more inclusive.
The end of a pregnancy can be a hugely physically and mentally traumatic experience. During times like these, the last thing we want our team members to do is worry about work
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