Access to reproductive health care has been critical to workplace contributions and advancements women have made over the past 50 years. This includes access to abortion. Restricting or criminalizing access not only jeopardizes that progress, it disproportionately affects women of color.

To ensure Syndio employees have full access to health care regardless of the state they reside in, here is what we will do:
Any employee seeking treatment for healthcare services not available to them within 100 miles of their home will have access of up to $4,000. To ensure confidentiality about healthcare decisions, employees will be able to access this service through a third party administrator.

Each of you has a diverse set of political and civic priorities and we always strive as a company to ensure that you are supported in your ability to prioritize your own meaningful action while balancing that with respecting the diverse backgrounds of your colleagues. When it comes to abortion, those views are often very deeply rooted. Should discussion of those views arise at work at Syndio, I ask only that each of us respect the moral standing of those with whom we disagree.

Which brings me to a separate but related topic, given the Dobb’s decision and the Due Process and Equal Protection clauses of the 14th Amendment. This weekend marked the 7th anniversary of the Obergefell decision which legalized marriage for all Americans. If you have a moment and have never read it, it’s worth reading. It says in part:

“Choices about marriage shape an individual’s destiny….The nature of marriage is that, through its enduring bond, two persons together can find other freedoms, such as expression, intimacy, and spirituality. This is true for all persons, whatever their sexual orientation….Excluding same-sex couples from marriage thus conflicts with a central premise of the right to marry….Being married in one State but having that valid marriage denied in another is one of “the most perplexing and distressing complication[s]” in the law of domestic relations….. The Court, in this decision, holds same-sex couples may exercise the fundamental right to marry in all States. It follows that the Court also must hold—and it now does hold—that there is no lawful basis for a State to refuse to recognize a lawful same-sex marriage performed in another State on the ground of its same-sex character.”

Last week, in concurring with the Dobbs decision, Justice Thomas said that “we should reconsider all of this court’s substantive due process precedents including Griswold, Lawrence and Obergefell.” It is not difficult to imagine the shock this might send through our LGBTQ+ community, and our people at Syndio.

There are a small number of political issues that are so close to the core mission, the values of our company, and our position on inclusion that they compel us to use our voice. We try to be selective on those issues, and this is one of them.

As an inclusive employer we welcome any person regardless of sexual orientation. We feel strongly that each person should have the right to marry. As a company that stands for equity in the workplace, the implications of a backtracking on Obergefell are critical to understand.

Equal protection is core to our mission, and we plan to take a very public stand against any potential roll back of the rights of our LGBTQ+ employees to marry whomever they damn well choose.