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Google says US employees can relocate to states with abortion rights

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Re: Google says US employees can relocate to states with abortion rights

#51

I wonder if this is a business decision that has shown it could be profitable. I can imagine people without kids work more hours. Then again, they have a lot less to lose. Interesting business decision. The question I have, some states are going to call abortion murder and charge it as such. Is Google aiding and abetting a homicide?

wrt. business decision. I think that in-vitro fertilization would soon become not an option in the "life at conception" states. Probably eggs freezing too. Even may be some forms of contraception. That will have more and more negative impact on that group of employees who would need such services. Also family planning becomes very dented at the "planning" part as getting pregnant one would have to accept the much higher risk of having to carry to terms even if say early genetic testing would show some serious defects, and that may result in delaying of the decision to get pregnant, less pregnancies overall, etc. especially for people who favors planning and consequences estimation based approach to live. That all would result in more stressed employees and lesser number of happy families, and that would negatively affect productivity.

(Note: i'm for abortion rules based on sentience level - i think that sentience level of cats/dogs/pigs is where we shouldn't be able to end the life at will while say fish level is ok, chicken is still ok though feels a bit uneasy, and that means as far as i understand about 3, may be 4 months cut-off for abortion in my view (incest and serious genetic defects a bit more complicated, and i think it warrants somewhat later cut-off))

Re: Google says US employees can relocate to states with abortion rights

#52

When TX first passed its law that allowed anyone to sue individuals that had or aided an abortion, Apple offered to pay for transport and the procedure for anyone at its new Austin campus. https://appleinsider.com/articles/21/09/17/apple-is-monitori...

Honestly, Apple should be dialing down investment in Texas.

The still-unfinished Austin campus will be the largest outside of Apple Park, so....

Re: Google says US employees can relocate to states with abortion rights

#53

This makes sense. I fully agree with Google on sticking to this one. Do NOT fund states that suppress our rights.

Does that include gun rights?

I'm empathetic to the sentiment, but I think we have to be a bit proportional about this kind of stuff, because 'our rights' is a really, really broad thing, and every issue is different.

For example, if this were more of a perfunctory argument about state vs. federal rights, and SCOTUS was really consistent about it, and this was a social issue that got caught up in a legal issue ... and otherwise 'pretty much most states had good rights' on this issue, well, then the whole thing would look different.

So it's hard to make blanket statements about 'rights' and even specific issues are just full of nuance.

It's probably a good decision by Google and they likely should apply some pragmatic pressure to help a resolution on this one.

After Trump/Jan 6/Ongoing investigations, BLM protests, COVID, and literally Russian invasion of a major country, I thought 'Black Swan' season was over! My god man, this is just too much. Yet another 'big fight'. Hey Zeus. It'd be nice to have some centrist consensus on a lot of this because ironically people are not remotely as divided as it seems from the headlines.

I think it's likely best of Bit Tech navigates these issues separately, with careful deliberation, 'doing the right thing' while not getting to populist about it ... because bigger question for Google, is 'what to do next'?.

Re: Google says US employees can relocate to states with abortion rights

#54
post #25

Ignoring abortion, I suspect that states without contraception, IVF or gay rights will be of less interest to a significant portion of the tech workforce. Companies would have to provide alternatives unless they want to limit their hiring to red state natives. Good argument for wfh to get talent that just won’t go there. Note that most contraceptives prevent implantation and IVF creates more embryos than needed. Both…

No post body was provided.

Re: Google says US employees can relocate to states with abortion rights

#57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, Apple should be dialing down investment in Texas.

It's odd how many corporations have policies to help their employees escape the laws of places like Texas and Florida, but they're more than happy to relocate their offices to those states for small tax reductions. If they're truly against these policies, gutting those states of thousands of high earning jobs and refusing to build any new offices is the most effective way to do it. The Russian sanctions actually surp…

No post body was provided.

Re: Google says US employees can relocate to states with abortion rights

#58
post #25

Ignoring abortion, I suspect that states without contraception, IVF or gay rights will be of less interest to a significant portion of the tech workforce. Companies would have to provide alternatives unless they want to limit their hiring to red state natives. Good argument for wfh to get talent that just won’t go there. Note that most contraceptives prevent implantation and IVF creates more embryos than needed. Both…

> Note that most contraceptives prevent implantation and IVF creates more embryos than needed. Both are no-no’s under the new regime.

Do you have any examples of specific laws of in any states that would make contraception or IVF illegal?

Most pro-life people are very supportive of IVF as they are all about people having more babies. Many states with anti-abortion laws also have laws explicitly making surrogacy legal (which requires IVF).

Re: Google says US employees can relocate to states with abortion rights

#59
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 24 weeks of maternity leave from Google You know these 24 weeks aren't a vacation, right? They're about 100x more demanding then the average tech job, and on-call 24/7. Not to mention that after the 24 weeks are up, you still have another unpaid (in fact, you are paying!) full time job of raising a child for at least another 17.5 years. That is a tall task for someone hoping to climb in their career, even if they w…

> You know these 24 weeks aren't a vacation, right? I never claimed it was. It’s a time to bond with your child and get acclimated to new responsibilities. That Google offers 24 weeks of maternity leave is something should be lauded, not vilified. > They're about 100x more demanding then the average tech job, and on-call 24/7. Not to mention that after the 24 weeks are up, you still have another unpaid (in fact, you…

>There is nothing great about abortion. And ease and normalization of abortion for convenience has contributed to way to many over the past fifty years.

We've been doing abortions for millennia, only in the past century did we start doing safe ones. I'd be less pissed about this ruling if those in support of it would fund neonatal care and social welfare systems to support a baby that may come into this world with a mother underprepared to care for it but typically the people against right to choose don't actually care about the babies once they're born.

Re: Google says US employees can relocate to states with abortion rights

#60
post #48
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google cares about attracting and retaining smart people. Smart people generally respect reproductive rights. So I guess in some ways you are correct, but not in the way your response to the person you are responding to would imply. What is interesting is that I guess the average google employee is in a good enough position in life to either afford birth control, get an abortion if they need one, or simply figure out…

The split of pro/against is really close to 50/50. If you think that the smart people are only on one side or that only one side has "good" arguments, then you are living in a bubble. The argument over abortion was going on before Roe v Wade. Roe v Wade only prevented legislation from finding a solution.

Yes, it's important for people to realize the split is closer to 50/50 nation wide, some people forget that, but in tech, it's definitely not 50/50 and that's relevant as well.
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