Showrunners Launch $5 Million Campaign for Abortion Funds, Request Productions Designate Reproductive Health Care Officers

thewrap.com:

first raised the issue — has launched an industry-wide effort to raise $5 million for the National Network of Abortion Funds.

Thus far, the seed fund has grown to $2.5 million.In late July, more than 400 showrunners outlined a list of specific demands for major studios that included AMC Networks, Amazon Studios, Apple TV+, NBCUniversal, Netflix, Paramount, The Walt Disney Company and Warner Bros.

Discovery. They were shortly joined by nearly 600 male creatives and around the same number of directors. On Aug. 10, the studios sent in a joint response that was decried by organizations such as Women in Film for ignoring certain stipulations like ceasing donations to anti-abortion politicians.The second letter, obtained by TheWrap, begins with a note of gratitude for the response, but adds that the “assertions fall far short of a response sufficient to ensure workplace safety and prevent inevitable gender discrimination within our industry.” Some of the outlined requests include the safeguarding of employees’ privacy and funding for legal fees.“Travel reimbursement, while necessary coverage, is not an adequate remedy for the denial of emergency reproductive healthcare that is an inevitable result of an abortion ban,” the letter continues. “In states where abortion is criminalized, an employee could be denied a lifesaving intervention in an ectopic pregnancy; a pregnant employee involved in an accident could be denied an X-ray on the grounds it may harm the embryo or fetus; and an employee suffering a pregnancy loss could be denied medically-necessary miscarriage management.

Furthermore, the current travel reimbursements do not extend to non-union employees like PAs who are not covered under a union health plan.”The listed.