Stop donations to anti-abortion politicians, says Google employees' petition for policy changes

California, United States

Asking Google to offer abortion benefits to contractors and suspend donations to anti-abortion politicians, more than 650 workers at Google owner Alphabet Inc have signed a petition for policy changes.

News agency Reuters reported that the demands reflect concerns about the US Supreme Court's decision to ban abortion across the country.

According to Alejandra Beatty, technical programme manager at Alphabet healthcare subsidiary Verily and co-lead of the petition, thousands of workers live in states that restrict abortions.

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Calling the protection of reproductive rights an existential battle, Beatty said Alphabet should consider convening a task force to oversee product changes.

Highlighting that it will continue to fight police requests for user information that it considers excessive, Google has established policies to assist employees seeking abortions.

Echoing demands from abortion advocates who for years have said that Google should remove search results for crisis pregnancy centres, the petition says Alphabet should not direct political contributions toward groups and candidates campaigning to restrict abortion access.

The California-based tech giant, which was created through a restructuring of Google, employs over 174,000 people globally.

(With inputs from agencies)

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