United Airlines has expressed a neutral tone on the controversial decision of the U.S. Supreme Court today to overturn decades of abortion precedent in its Dobbs v. Jackson case.
United Airlines Addresses Supreme Court Dobbs Abortion Decision
A memo by Kate Gebo, the Executive Vice President of Human Resources and Labor Relations at United Airlines, strikes a decidedly neutral tone in urging employees to be “supportive and respectful” of one another on this issue, which elicits strong emotions from both foes and proponents of the right to abortion. It also notes that United’s medical plans will continue to offer abortion coverage.
United Team:
The Supreme Court today issued an opinion that effectively overturns Roe v. Wade, a landmark 1973 decision which legalized abortion nationwide. As a result of today’s ruling, the legal status of abortion will now be left for individual states to decide.
You’ll likely be hearing and reading a lot more about this in the days and weeks ahead, but I wanted to make sure I shared two important things with you:
First, from a benefits perspective, our policies have not changed. Our medical plans have long provided access to reproductive health care. You can review the services provided by your health care plans and find contact information for additional questions at Your Benefits Resource.
Second, the topic of abortion rights is an emotional one and I’d expect today’s news to impact some members of our team differently than others. Being supportive and respectful are important parts of our culture at United – where ‘caring’ is second only to ‘safety’ among our core4 principles – so I ask that if you engage in conversations with your colleagues on this subject, please remember to do so with empathy and understanding. As always, if you need additional support, our Work/Life Solutions platform provides confidential guidance (including EAP) and Ginger, our mental healthcare app-based chat program, provides free, confidential access to a coach 24/7.
Days like today are a good reminder of the value of having a strong culture at United – our ability to be accepting of a wide range of opinions and beliefs is critical to our future success as an airline.
Thank you for all you do to take care of our customers and one another during this very busy summer season.
Kate
United argues that “our ability to be accepting of a wide range of opinions and beliefs is critical to our future success as an airline,” but I wonder how far that extends to other hot-button topics.
CONCLUSION
United Airlines has taken a cautious approach to the Dobbs decision, admonishing employees to respect diverse viewpoints amongst a workforce of over 80,000. At the same time, United has made clear it will continue to offer abortion coverage to its employees.
Has United Airlines taken the right approach to today’s breaking news from the U.S. Supreme Court?
> Read More: United Airlines CEO Wades Into Abortion Debate
It maintains a strong opinion to the 30% that is primarily the deep rural Christian population that continues to hold the entire country hostage with their Taliban hopes for our nation. Enough. From insurrections, guns, and now abortion rights…they continue to bully their way to getting what they want. Personal freedoms? Only when it means they get automatic weapons and the right to carry them into public facilities. Otherwise, they have every intention to control your lives and choices.
70% of the country does not want this. This will be a hard fall for the Republican Party and their Christian Right agenda. Suburban moms are going to change the landscape come voting time and soon the right can all hide in Alabama breeding amongst family as they build a commune that is a product of some vision of America in 1950 when white men ruled and the rest marched in order.
Next up, same sex marriage. We are a nation being bullied by Neanderthals. United should take a stand. Everyone should. The 30% are tearing our country apart and setting us on a course to become the next Afghanistan, Christian Style.
A majority didn’t want gay marriage either and was even was voted on in deep blue states like California and Hawaii. Seems you only care about the will of the people when it is your agenda.
Dredd scott was another case that court eventually overturned. I see not killing babies a progress.
63% 0f Americans support same sex marriage. Perhaps get your statistics outside of Alabama. Despite what YOU believe, the majority believe in a woman’s right to choose and that love is love.
Prop 8 disagrees.
Either way it’s next and we’ll win again on that.
So you’re admitting the majority of the people support same sex marriage, but you’re ok with a fundamentalist minority getting rid of it.
Prop 8 was voted in California to ban same sex.
You had no problems with the majority being ignored there.
Prop 8 happened over a decade ago.
Actually by the wording of your comment you are wrong. In 2011 the percentage of public approval same sex marriage was just under 50% it took 5 more years to break 50%. It took till 2015 for the Supreme Court to rule same sex marriage was the same as normal marriage.
You are absolutely correct. The rest of the Free World is laughing at us because we allow this stuff to happen. Unfortunately the right-wing whakos vote when so many don’t.
Maybe it’s better to say nothing. Did United write about condolences to the victims of yesterday’s big earthquake in Afghanistan or the massive floods in India? No.
In United’s defense, this move may theoretically impact a huge number of employees out of its Houston hub. Kind of hard not to address it.
Houston is a deep blue area. I doubt they would be alienating many of their employees on this other than pilots who tend to whatever you want to call the Conservative party today. Taliban, I guess?
Abortions are now banned completely in Texas. We had a trigger law
Can be sentenced to up to 99 years in prison as it is a first degree felony if the fetus dies during an abortion. Otherwise, it is a second degree felony
And why Texas conservatives are panicked and reacting with such gusto. They know what’s coming. By 2028 Texas is a blue state and they are screwed. They are clinging to life support now and praying to their Taliban leaders that the population of Lubbock increases quickly. It won’t.
@Stuart
Texas is not blue any time soon. Hispanics are voting Republican now. The Rio Grande Valley is becoming a Republican stronghold these days.
See the special election last week
@Stuart – LOL yeah, I’ve heard leftists claiming that for years. Just one problem – Hispanics are voting republican now. In your arrogance to proclaim your permanent majority you didn’t consider the possibility that all those non-white people would ever DARE vote republican. Now it has come back at your with delicious irony.
Your dream of a Blue Texas is as dead as an aborted fetus.
Time will tell. And I highly doubt the hispanic population of the Rio Grande Valley will surpass the massive influx into urban areas in Austin, San Antonio, Houston and, even Dallas now. If you really think Brownsville (as an example) and its hispanic population can keep up with that, good luck. I would say it’s all of you that are dreaming and whispering hopeful pleas as you cling to your lifeboats in the middle of the Atlantic. We will see.
Beto is finally going to win? Doubt it. We’ll see.
SO Stuart believes in replacement theory?
It won’t affect a huge number of employees because many don’t have abortions or have only one. United employees can probably fly to Chicago for much less than ordinary people.
Much like Dredd Scott, the court fixed an error today and the unborn will no longer be butchered like meat.
This is a good thing and I hope the court fixes many other errors it has made in the last 20 years.
Don’t worry, the ones who are born will be butchered eventually at school, church, department stores, etc, in some mass shooting by some random gun fetishist
School shootings are very rare. What is not so rare? Youjg black men shooting each other. How can you keep allowing them to enact white supremacy?
In the rest of the world maybe. Keep up the gymnastics
Nope. No longer rare. Not in the US, anyway.
Yes, Better that they be born, only for the Qberts to deny them school lunches. And of course the increased risk of being killed while in school. Pro Life. Sure.
It’s funny you baby killers always justify your murder for something silly. Like not having free school lunches.
I’m more worried about the lefty groomers in schools.
Good to know you’re a homophobe as well.
Good to know that you support child diddlers like the Southern Baptist Church because it’s Gods plan. You’re such a nonce aren’t you.
Butcher them in the schools, butcher them in the grocery stores, but dont allow a legal and safe abortion because science is too difficult for Con(artists)servatives to understand,
PS. Love the way you support child abusers because its all “Gods plan huir de hur”
@Stuart
You reveal your ignorance and complete disregard for the facts when you speak of deplorables and automatic weapons. Automatic weapons are highly restricted. In any case, you have repeatedly shown your true colors as an elitist wannabe follower of the Cathedral who sneers at his countrymen. Is it any wonder right thinking folx can’t stand people like you?
The Constitution is supposed to protect us from mob rule. There is no right to abortion and the ruling doesn’t even ban it. Keep having abortions if you want. It probably is a net positive for society if pro-abortionists reduce their fitness anyway.
Yeah. Care only for the unborn. Once the kids are born let them die. Cultists have always been sick in the head
Yes but let that baby get sick or need child care the last thing they will need is a republican.
I appreciate United focusing on the direct impacts to employees, acknowledging that there is a diversity of opinion within the organization, and leaving politics to political organizations. This is how corporations need to begin approaching hot button issues again.
Well put.
How do pilots feel about this? Are they chuffed?
Who cares about the least empathetic bunch in the company?
Why do airlines feel a need to say anything at all about it?
Just fly the planes, idiots!
Corporate wokeism. They think it is profitablr to virtue signal in Western markets. In non-Western ones? Have you seen them blasting their pride alllyship on their social media accounts in places like Saudi Arabia? China?
@Stuart: did you get you extra Covid booster today? Just checking.
Yes, “your friend” told me I should.
Of course he did.. Mystery heart attacks, mystery strokes, mystery cardiac arrest in children, mystery teens dying “suddenly” and “unexpectedly” in their sleep, mystery athletes dropping dead playing high school football, mystery facial paralysis, mystery children with hepatitis, mystery NBA athletes dying of “natural causes” in their 20’s. mysteries are BAU to Stuart, and apparently also to this blog.
Women, you have a choice to make,
Withold that sex that you have long threatened to do if this ruling comes through or show the world that you are actually just a bunch of hypocritical whores, who can’t actually abstain.
F anyone that agrees with this ruling. Maybe your wife or daughter will have a miscarriage and bleed to death because they couldn’t get proper care and you will realize the error of your ways.
Remember, now doctors in these states will not get training on the procedures so even if there is a legal reason for an abortion, (if there remains legal reasons, life of mother, etc.) There won’t be doctors that know what to do.
Hey there Billy Bob #2, you need to change your handle.
I am the original Billy Bob.
I am for one am happy it was not constitutional at all. I am a Christian and I live in Tennessee in a rural county by choice. That being said I am thankful for a company to take a neutral tone, I just want them to provide a service.
Tell that to all the women condemned to die if they have a miscarriage you phony Christian hypocrite.
Suck it other Billy bob
Miscarriages are patriarchal white supremacy now, amirite?
Why do you post this crap? You know how it brings out the lunatics…..ah….now I get it.
Crap?
Too harsh? Ok..politically sensitive material that only infuriates the small minded.
Welcome to the culture war. Suck it up, buttercup. As long as the majority is bullied by the minority of rural Christian Right gun slinging radicals you bet it infuriates. A lot of people. And few are weak minded.
You’re the majority? LOL
We are. And you just crossed the line.
I know that I don’t know you, Stuart, but I know this: you are not the majority and – thank God – never will be.
Yes, we are the majority. Your land and farm animals don’t count as people, no matter how many of them you have relations with.
The body of Americans who vote by majority for proper moderate leadership would like to remind you that the system is broken. And that you are far outnumbered in our nation. And we are no longer going to tolerate being dictated to by hicks and radicals who scream “freedom” as it pertains to and assists angry white men to stay in power. The majority is well documented. If it was about the majority, as it should be now, Trump would never have been in office, and today would have never happened.
No matter how hard you try, you can’t stop the red waves, Stuart, even with Dominion and massive fraud on your side. The tides are turning. You’ll see in November and also in 2024 -> minority.
Oh and thanks for the true laugh that Brandon is proper moderate leadership. I’ll tell that to the guy who put $5 in his gas tank tonight before me. $5 total. I’m sure he’ll agree.
->LOL<-
Trump was a way better president than Brandon. On January 6th:
1) Gas was $1.93 per gallon.
2) No inflation
3) Supply chain was functioning well
4) Economy was the strongest in 50 years
5) Border was controlled and secure
6) Taliban wasn’t armed with US artillery
7) Plenty of workers to fulfill labor needs
8) Stock market and 401k’s at record highs
9) Interest rates at record lows
Trump was proper moderate leadership.
we are the majority Stuart.
The American people are conservative.
@ECH
A lot of what is happening today would have happened under Trump anyway, even if he had be re-elected.
@koggerj
Simply not true. If it was, the GOP wouldn’t be spending so much time on gerrymandering, redistricting, voter suppression, and packing courts with conservative judges.
@Aaron
Democrats use gerrymandering far more. Just look at ny, ca and il.
Plus the extensive court fraud and bussing of low info low iq voters to the polls.
Your ideology is based on emotion
Lol says the guy whose facts are based of fake news.
Yes. Crap. To get eyeballs on screens.
Very disappointing from UA. I would hope they would offer employees in states with abortion restrictions positive space flights to other states to get an abortion. Frankly a statement that does not reflect the spirit of the company, or the opinion of the vast majority of its employees. UA should lead and be brave, not be cowed by political pressure in Texas.
Positive space? they can use their travel benefits like they do to gallivant and sleep with people all over the world. probably the reason they need an abortion in the first place. United isn’t dumb. they know the sexual culture of the profession.
This. The mind of those that are inflicting our country with Taliban rule. As they sling their guns and call out the virtues of anyone that is not a 1950 housewife making meatloaf and repeating over and over, “Yes, dear.”
maybe Eric Swalwell can convince United to give positive space tickets not only to employees but to all women nationwide – regular, trans, and otherwise. Or maybe United can allow all women to bid for move-up lines, instead of being on reserve for abortion.
Regarding guns, I hope United will retroactively issue a statement about that, too.
@Stuart
U mad, bro?
The basket of deplorables somehow beat the most qualified candodate for President ever. The election must have been rigged.
Yeah better to be a Christian priest who diddles kids in the name of the lord, and then deny those abused kids the chance to have an abortion. Gods plan and all that
Positive space to kill their child?
Disgusting even woke kriby isn’t that stupid. he’s just a grifter like most room temperature lefties.
I would put them in positive space and first class..
They aren’t killing their child. You can’t kill something that hasn’t been born in the first place.
A fetus is just a parasite growing in a birthing person’s womb. Killing it ain’t no thang.
They are.
Nope. A fetus is not a child.
Remember that abortion has killed tens of millions of black babies. Margaret Sanger was a racist and eugenicist, planned Parenthood was a means to deal with the undesirables. Black lives matter, end the genocide.
What a nonsense statement on so many levels.
I think the comments on this blog are a good example of why public companies shouldn’t make any statement on such issues at all. There is no upside other than a handful of people in HR feeling smug about doing “something” because they just can’t help themselves. Besides the statement isn’t neutral it’s just a backhanded way of saying “you can still get all the abortions you want and United will be happy to continue paying for it”.
People just lost a right. Everyone that thinks it great or doesn’t care about this issue should takes pause. Maybe next time they’ll take away a right you care about. Maybe someday your precious brand of religion will be banned. Welcome to the American Taliban.
Killing a baby was never a right. The supreme courted ruled badly in the 1970s on abortion using a loophole to make it legal. That loophole is gone now.
A fetus is not a baby. Babies are not killed. Fetuses are aborted.
Good Lord! Why is this even a topic for a website about air travel?
There probably is no way to honourbly and respectfully to achieve the goals of this letter no matter your opinion on the matter based upon the firery language on both sides.
I’m 100% pro-choice, but don’t want to fly with a pro-choice airline. Or a pro-life airline.
My airline should be pro-safety, pro-service and pro-stroopwafel.
It should also be a workplace which includes men and women, gays and straights, republicans and democrats.
Now if only Disney took a lesson from United.
Good on United for not virtue signaling.