Facebook does not want employees to talk about abortion at work

While the US is currently battling with some severely problematic abortion ban law issues, Meta (Facebook) employees were told on Thursday that they are prohibited from talking about abortion on Workplace. Workplace is the internal version of Facebook accessible to and used by its employees. Employees have been asked to refrain from talking about abortion because there is an “increased risk” that the company is seen as a “hostile work environment”.

Meta has a policy that was put in place in 2019 that prohibits employees from discussing “opinions or debates about abortion being right or wrong, availability or rights of abortion, and political, religious, and humanitarian views on the topic,” as per a section in the company’s internal “Respectful Communication Policy” as reported by The Verge. This particular policy has not been reported on till now.

According to reports, some employees have “called on management to do away with the policy in the aftermath of a leaked Supreme Court draft opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade, arguing that the ban is at odds with employees being allowed to talk ‘respectful’ about issues like Black Lives Matter, immigration, and trans rights”.

Meta’s VP of HR Janelle Gale told employees during an all-hands meeting that abortion was “the most divisive and reported topic” being discussed by employees on Workplace and “even if people are respectful, and they’re attempting to be respectful about their view on abortion, it can still leave people feeling like they’re being targeted based on their gender or religion”.

“It’s the one unique topic that kind of trips that line on a protected class pretty much in every instance,” Gale said.

Most of the large companies in the US are yet to clearly take a stance on abortion bans though “several have signaled their opposition”. Amazon and Tesla have said that they will cover some expenses for pregnant employees if they need to travel for abortion, Salesforce has said it will assist with moving expenses if employees want to leave Texas (due to the abortion ban), and both Uber and Lyft have promised to cover legal expenses for drivers if they are sued under state laws for driving a person seeking an abortion. Meta’s Sheryl Sandberg wrote on her public Facebook Page after “Politico published the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion seeking to overturn abortion rights at a federal level” that abortion was “one of our most fundamental right”.

“Every woman, no matter where she lives, must be free to choose whether and when she becomes a mother. Few things are more important to women’s health and equality,” Sandberg wrote.

Ironically, Meta started pushing back on abortion discussions internally soon after Sandberg’s post. Just a day after Sandberg posted, one of Meta’s most senior executives Naomi Gleit explained in an internal post “why the company had placed restrictions around discussion of abortion”.

“At work, there are many sensitivities around this topic, which makes it difficult to discuss on Workplace,” Gleit wrote and added that employees were allowed to discuss abortion at work “with a trusted colleague in a private setting (e.g. live, chat, etc.)” and in a “listening session with a small group of up to 5 like-minded people to show solidarity”.

Gleit “encouraged employees to use Meta’s social apps to share their views in their personal capacity, and that the company ‘will continue to offer our employees access to reproductive healthcare in the US regardless of where they live’,”.

This policy banning abortion discussions at work has divided employees at Meta, while some have supported it, others were frustrated about having posts on the topic removed. According to The Verge, “during the all-hands meeting led by Sandberg, Gale, and other execs Thursday, several comments about the policy were posted by employees underneath the livestream and removed as the meeting progressed”.

Some employees have called this “dehumanising and dystopian” and one said that she this policy has led her to feel a “strong sense of silence and isolation on Workplace” as the same policy explicitly allows them to “discuss similarly sensitive issues and movements including immigration, trans rights, climate change, Black Lives Matter, gun rights / gun control, and vaccination” but not abortion.

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