Apple has announced that it will support employees affected by the new US abortion ban. In this case, the company will assume the cost of treatment in another US state, the group confirmed to US media late last week.
It supports the rights of its employees to make their own decisions about reproductive health issues, Apple said. Apple’s “health plan” has had analogous rules for a decade.
State can act by order of court
The Supreme Court of the United States, the Supreme Court, last week with most conservative judges decided to overturn the “Roe v. Wade” rule that has been in place for 50 years. This previously meant that US states were generally not allowed to impose restrictions on abortion. After tipping, new rules came into force – sometimes within a very short period of time – which are now doing exactly the same. Medical abortions such as the “morning pill” (“Plan B”) are also affected.
According to Apple, if Apple employees are in an abortion-prohibited US state, they may get help in a non-restricted state. The company told CNBC that the “broad benefits” of Apple’s health care plan include being able to allow employees to travel to other US states if needed medical assistance was not available in their home state.
fear of collected data
Apple said in an internal memo last year that it was monitoring ongoing government efforts in Texas to enforce an abortion ban and that employees had the right to seek treatment in any other US state. The group is now continuing this attitude.
Meanwhile, victims fear that the data collected by the app could be used to punish people for seeking abortions. This applies, for example, to period trackers that can be used to calculate ovulation. Apple itself has implemented this same feature within its Health app. In the event of a (iCloud) backup of devices, the data entered here also ends up on the group’s servers, but is strongly encrypted according to the group – so strongly that Apple (or the authority that submitted the court order) are) cannot read it, only the user himself.
(BSc)
