Top Indiana Employers Voice Concern Over State's New Near-Total Abortion Ban

[niyad]

Top Indiana Employers Voice Concern Over State’s New Near-Total Abortion Ban
8/8/2022 by Linda Burstyn and Roxy Szal


Abortion rights activists in the Indiana Senate during a special session to ban abortion rights in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade. Gov. Holcomb signed the bill into law. (Jeremy Hogan / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty Images)

In Indiana, a bill banning nearly all abortions became law on Friday after passing through the state Senate and being signed by Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb. The law, Senate Bill 1, takes effect on Sep. 15. S.B. 1 makes Indiana the first state to pass an abortion restriction after Roe v. Wade‘s overturn and ninth state to ban abortion outright, alongside Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Texas.

In response to the extreme legislation, some of the state’s largest employers are raising concerns about the harmful effects of the law—both on the health of current and future residents of Indiana, and on the companies’ abilities to recruit top talent. Drug company Eli Lilly employs over 10,000 Hoosiers alone. “Given this new law,” the company said in a statement, “we will be forced to plan for more employment growth outside our home state.” The company has offered to cover travel costs for employees seeking reproductive services out of state, but admitted this provision “may not be enough for some current and potential employees.” Soon after, a spokesman for Cummins, a Columbus-based engine company employing 10,000, voiced similar concern over S.B. 1. A statement expressed “deep concern” with how the law impacts employees of the company and impedes its ability to attract and retain a diverse workforce in Indiana. “Cummins believes that women should have the right to make reproductive healthcare decisions as a matter of gender equity, ensuring that women have the same opportunity as others to participate fully in the workforce and that our workforce is diverse,” the company said in its statement. “This law is contrary to this goal and we oppose it.”

Rachel Simon, an Indianapolis-based philanthropist, testified against S.B. 1 on the floor of the state Senate on July 25. Rachel’s father Herbert Simon is the owner of the Indiana Pacers; he and his brother Melvin Simon founded Simon Property Group, the largest owner of shopping centers in the state. “Denying individuals full bodily autonomy is a dehumanizing, archaic, oppressive, invasion of privacy,” she said. “The ramifications of this bill will be far-reaching.” Simon spoke of her family’s “deep gratitude for this state, its people and its potential.” She continued, “S.B. 1 will result in irreparable damage to Indiana’s already suffering reputation. It will greatly hinder our ability to recruit, retain and attract new talent across all sectors, from the arts to tech to sports. We can expect businesses and individuals to relocate, divest and boycott.”

(The remainder of this piece is adapted from an original reported piece from Linda Burstyn, “Bad Business,” featured in the Summer 2022 issue of Ms. Become a member today to read more reporting like this in print and through our app.)

Attacks on Abortion Are ‘Bad for Business’

“The attack on abortion is bad for business,” said Bruce Freed, president of the Center for Political Accountability, an organization that tries to bring transparency to corporate political spending. “It has a chilling effect on the overall economy and society—an economy and society that need to be healthy in order for the companies to grow and thrive.” If all state-level abortion restrictions were eliminated, there would be an estimated over a half a million more women aged 15 to 44 would be in the labor force, according to a report conducted by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR). IWPR also estimates that state economies will lose $105 billion per year under abortion bans. And the states that stand to lose the most are the ones that have recently put bans in place: Texas will lose $14.6 billion per year, Florida will lose $6.6 billion, and Missouri will lose $5.3 billion. “Abortion restrictions are going to depress economic growth and GDP [gross domestic product] by keeping women out of the workforce during their most productive years,” said Shelley Alpern, director of corporate engagement at Rhia Ventures, a socially conscious investment firm.

. . .

https://msmagazine.com/2022/08/08/indiana-eli-lilly-business-abortion-ban-women-workers/

[tanyev]

1. Texas leadership has aggressively courted companies to move here in recent years

and successfully landed quite a few. I wonder if that will come to a screeching halt now?

[niyad]

2. I believe a number of companies have announced that they will not be locating there, but

could not tell you specifically which ones. Just my readings the last few months.

[librechik]

3. So long, Indiana. You used to be so much friendlier to workers.

But full of white christian nationalists.. Some will be glad to leave. Not the KKK.

[niyad]

4. 'You are not honourable anymore' Shamed and trafficked into Iraq's sex trade

(very long, very disturbing read)

‘You are not honourable anymore’

Shamed and trafficked into Iraq's sex trade
A trafficking victim in Iraq


Shahad, a trafficking victim in Iraq [People & Power/Al Jazeera]
By Simona Foltyn
Published On 22 Aug 202222 Aug 2022


Part I – The Ambush

The sedan pulled into a side street in Mansour, an upmarket area of western Baghdad. The rush-hour traffic on the main thoroughfare had thinned into a trickle, allowing the neighbourhood to settle into the mellow, late-morning rhythm of middle-class life. Rolling past the high concrete walls and manicured hedges, the car paused upon reaching a red Kia, parked by a small shop that had been agreed as the meeting point. Two girls, whom we’ll call Noor and Shahad, emerged from the backseat. They wore black abayas, full-length garments usually associated with more conservative communities. Their long, black hair was straightened and partly pinned up, the tips distinctly dyed in red and white. They glanced around nervously as a potbellied, middle-aged man, Husham (not his real name), shepherded them towards the Kia. Noor and Shahad were about to be sold for $5,000 each.

In the distance, Wissam al-Zubaidi from Iraq’s anti-trafficking unit watched the scene from his black Toyota Landcruiser. A moustachioed general in his mid-40s, Wissam wore civilian clothing and Ray Ban aviators, his pistol wedged between his seat and the centre armrest. The driver of the red sedan was one of his men, posing as a pimp who wanted to buy prostitutes to work in northern Iraq. Nearby, a handful more undercover officers stood ready to intervene.There was an air of confident routine; Wissam’s unit had staged dozens of sting operations like this before, apprehending lowly pimps as they traded women in broad daylight, in the middle of one of the capital’s wealthiest neighbourhoods. Since his appointment two years ago, Wissam had become one of the most active officers in the Ministry of Interior’s anti-trafficking department. He could claim credit for many of the sex trafficking cases the ministry had investigated last year. But the official figure – a mere 115 cases in 2021 in a country of 40 million – was likely just the tip of the iceberg.


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Brigadier General Wissam al-Zubaidi in his office at the Ministry of Interior's anti-trafficking unit [People & Power/Al Jazeera]

For more than a year, Al Jazeera investigated the sex trade in Iraq, a growing phenomenon fuelled by deeply entrenched socioeconomic factors and enabled by a tangled web of corrupt officials and armed groups, a toxic mix that has become the hallmark of the United States’s post-2003 legacy in Iraq. The practice appeared to stand in stark contrast to the tenets of Iraq’s patriarchal society, where honour and reputation are paramount and closely tied to a woman’s chastity. But beneath this veneer of conservative social norms, young girls from poor backgrounds are routinely sold into prostitution, Al Jazeera has found through interviews with more than three dozen individuals, including survivors, women’s rights activists, security officials, pimps and judges.

The victims tend to be girls and women from underprivileged backgrounds who are fleeing domestic abuse or child marriage, with traffickers often exploiting society’s preoccupation with honour to shame vulnerable women into the sex trade. Iraq’s justice system is infused with the same patriarchal norms and often convicts trafficking survivors for prostitution. There is far less accountability for those who benefit from the trade.

. . . .

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Iraq's anti-trafficking unit apprehends Husham during a sting operation in Baghdad's Mansour district [People & Power/Al Jazeera]

. . . .

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/longform/2022/8/22/sex-trafficking-in-iraq