According to a part of the company's internal "respect for communication policy" seen by the verge, the policy implemented by meta in 2019 prohibits employees from discussing "opinions or debates on whether abortion is right or wrong, the availability or rights of abortion, and political, religious and humanitarian views on the subject". Some employees called on management to cancel the policy after the Supreme Court leaked a draft opinion that would overturn Roe v Wade. They believed that the ban was inconsistent with allowing employees to "respectfully" talk about black life events, immigration and transgender rights.
At a full meeting with employees on Thursday, Janelle gale, vice president of human resources of meta, pointed out that abortion is the topic that employees are most likely to disagree and report in the workplace. "Even if people respect and they try to respect their views on abortion, it still makes people feel that they are targeted based on their gender or religion. This is a unique topic that touches the boundaries of the protected class in almost any case," she said
As of press time, meta spokesmen did not comment on the incident.
Up to now, most large companies have not clearly stated their position on the abortion ban, but several companies have expressed their opposition. Among them, Amazon and Tesla said they would pay some fees for pregnant employees who needed cross state abortion, while salesforce told employees in September that if they wanted to leave due to the abortion ban in Texas, the company would help pay the moving expenses. LYFT and Uber have also promised that if the driver is sued under state law for driving a person seeking abortion, the company will bear legal costs. Jeremy stoppelman, CEO of yelp, took the strongest position, saying in a column that "companies need to take a stand on reproductive rights".
After politico released the leaked draft supreme court opinion and sought to overturn the right to abortion at the federal level, Shirley Sandberg, the second executive of meta, called abortion "one of our most basic rights" on her Facebook public page. "Every woman, no matter where she lives, must be free to choose whether and when to become a mother. Few things are more important than women's health and equality," she wrote
But shortly thereafter, meta began to promote the discussion of abortion internally. The day after Sandberg's public comments, Naomi gleit, one of the company's top executives, explained in an internal article why the company restricted the discussion of abortion. "At work, there are many sensitive issues around this topic, which makes it very difficult to discuss this issue in the workplace." She pointed out that employees are only allowed to discuss abortion in private with a trusted colleague at work and in a group of up to five like-minded people. She encourages employees to use meta's social app to share their views as individuals, while the company will continue to provide employees with access to reproductive health care in the United States.