Here’s Google’s letter saying employees can relocate to states with abortion rights

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

On Friday, after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of abortion rights, a staff-wide email was sent by the chief people officer of the company. The email states that people in charge of the relocation process will be aware of the situation in assessing the requests.

The Supreme Court did not make abortion illegal in the US, but it did leave the decision up to the states. Several states have immediately restricted abortion rights. California, where Google is located, has pledged to protect abortion rights.

The full letter can be found here.

Hi everyone,

This morning the US Supreme Court issued a ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that rolls back Roe v. Wade.

This is a profound change for the country that deeply affects so many of us, especially women. Everyone will respond in their own way, whether that’s wanting space and time to process, speaking up, volunteering outside of work, not wanting to discuss it at all, or something else entirely. Please be mindful of what your co-workers may be feeling and, as always, treat each other with respect.

Equity is extraordinarily important to us as a company, and we share concerns about the impact this ruling will have on people’s health, lives, and careers. We will keep working to make information on reproductive healthcare accessible across our products and continue our work to protect user privacy.

To support Googlers and their dependents, our US benefits plan and health insurance covers out-of-state medical procedures that are not available where an employee lives and works. Googlers can also apply for relocation without justification, and those overseeing this process will be aware of the situation. If you need additional support, please connect 1:1 with a People Consultant via [link to internal tool redacted].

We will be arranging support sessions for Googlers in the US in the coming days. These will be posted to Googler News.

Please don’t hesitate to lean on your Google community in the days ahead and continue to take good care of yourselves and each other.

The relocation policy may or may not be changed because of the Supreme Court's decision. If we hear back, we will change this story.

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The Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade