Texas-based developer Certain Affinity has pledged to help staff relocate from areas that restrict access to essential care ahead of a potential supreme court ruling that could allow several states to ban access to abortion.
Sharing an internal email on Twitter, Certain Affinity CEO Max Hoberman said it’s clear the rights of women are “under attack” in the USA, and specifically decried the draft Supreme Court decision that would potentially overturn Roe vs. Wade — the 1973 legal precedent that declared legal bans of abortion to be unconstitutional.
The move also comes as Texas officials continue to push a harmful anti-trans agenda, with Gov. Greg Abbot recently penning a letter calling on professionals such as teachers and doctors to report parents who seek to provide their children with gender-affirming care.
Although Hoberman noted the company, which has provided development support on franchises like Halo and Call of Duty, still needs to formulate specific policies relating to its handling of those health matters, the chief exec emphasized that it will provide financial support to any worker that wishes to relocate to preserve their physical and emotional wellbeing.
“It is appalling that states, including the CA headquarter’s home state of Texas, are wading into what I consider personal health and privacy matters. Recently this encompassed gross intrusions on the rights and dignity of transgender youth, putting politics over the physical and emotional health and wellbeing of a vulnerable population, and threatening their families, friends, doctors, and other supporters,” wrote Hoberman.
“As the recent draft U.S. Supreme Court opinion potentially overturning Roe vs. Wade has shown, the rights of women to make critical decisions about their health and wellbeing — including access to vital birth control medication and abortion — and protections for the privacy of those decisions are also under attack.
“As a demonstration of our company values, today I am making this commitment to you: If the state or province that you live in restricts access to what a majority of medical experts consider essential care, and this makes remaining there untenable for you and your family, we will cover the pre-approved, documented, reasonable out-of-pocket costs of your relocation to another, safer state or province that we operate in.”
Certain Affinity isn’t the only company to condemn recent efforts to end access to essential health care in the United States. Earlier this month, Destiny developer Bungie, Guild Wars 2 developer AreaNet, and Ratchet & Clank creator Insomniac all decried the potential Roe vs. Wade ruling.
Insomniac parent company Sony, however, is seemingly keen to remain neutral, with Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan reportedly asking employees to “respect differences of opinion” on abortion in an internal email that one staffer is said to have described as “tone deaf.”
Soon after, Sony prepped an abortion rights donation in response to the backlash, although Insomniac CEO Ted Price reportedly told employees that Sony has warned its internal studios that there will be “material repercussions” if they continue to speak out on the matter.