Veris Wealth Partners Supports Women’s Reproductive Rights

Since 1973, American women have had a federally guaranteed constitutional right to abortion access. A leaked first draft of Justice Samuel Alito’s majority opinion has given us early warning that the Supreme Court is preparing to take that right away by overturning Roe v. Wade.²

Veris Wealth Partners affirms our support for women’s rights – including women’s right to have control over their bodies. We are unapologetically pro-choice. We believe that access to abortion is a basic right to medical care. We also condemn any effort to demonize abortion, as women often make this choice with anguish.

The Potential Consequences of the End of Roe

Striking down Roe v. Wade means the states will decide this issue. After Roe falls, over half of all states are expected to outlaw abortion³ and in some cases deem doctors, medical teams, and patients as criminals.⁴ The state of Texas, for example, has already passed a “trigger-ban” ordering that anyone arrested for performing or inducing an abortion be charged with a first-degree felony⁵ – punishable by life in prison and up to a $10,000 fine.

We believe that this decision will negatively impact millions of women in the United States – including those who are likely to resort to dangerous, and often deadly, non-medical methods of abortions. According to the World Health Organization, “unsafe abortion is a leading – but preventable – cause of maternal deaths and morbidities” globally.⁶

Our leading health institutions do not support the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Dr. Gerald Harmon, president of the American Medical Association, responded to Alito’s leaked draft by saying, “With deliberations underway, we strongly urge the Court to reject the premise of the draft opinion and affirm precedent that allows patients to receive the critical reproductive health care that they need. Allowing the lawmakers of Mississippi or any other state to substitute their own views for a physician’s expert medical judgment puts patients at risk and is antithetical to public health and sound medical practice.”⁷

The Outsized Impact of this Decision on Marginalized Women & Girls

Because of long-standing inequities in our country, women and girls from marginalized backgrounds are expected to experience the worst impacts of the Supreme Court’s decision.⁸ Lack of access to adequate healthcare and contraception means that women of color are more likely to experience unintended pregnancy than white women.⁹ Evidence of racial disparities in women’s access to health care can already be seen in maternal mortality data. Research compiled by the CDC in 2020 showed that the maternal death rate for Black women was 2.9 times greater than the rate for non-Hispanic white women.¹⁰ The worst negative economic impacts of this decision are also expected to disproportionately fall on BIPOC women.¹¹

Additional Support is Needed for Women and Families in the United States

Many women choose abortions because they cannot afford to raise a child.¹² In addition to full reproductive rights, we believe that women and their families also need access to:
● Affordable healthcare
● Family planning and contraceptives (including education and training)
● Policies that support mothers and families
● Paid family leave
● Affordable childcare
● Workplaces that support parents through scheduling, pay, benefits…etc.
● Tax policy that provides financial benefit to family caregivers

Actions We Are Taking

Veris made a corporate donation to Planned Parenthood Federation of America in May 2022, which was matched by Partners within the firm.

Through our investment managers, Veris clients have taken meaningful actions related to reproductive rights:

● As You Sow filed four resolutions related to sexual and reproductive health in 2022.¹³ 30 Veris clients have endorsed two separate reproductive rights resolutions “Report on risks of policies restricting reproductive rights and strategies to minimize or mitigate risks”.

 – 23 Veris clients endorsed this resolution for TJX Companies
– 7 of our clients endorsed this same resolution for Kroger.

● Another Veris investment manager has filed shareholder resolutions and engaged with portfolio companies on reproductive health & rights and political donations to organizations that are anti-abortion.¹⁴

● Another manager provided Veris with proxy voting guidelines for abortion/right to life issues.¹⁵

As we know the cost of keeping a child is sometimes prohibitive to women in a precarious financial situation, we have also taken action to support paid family leave. In support of mothers, in 2021 we worked with the Paid Leave for the United States (PL+US) campaign to advocate for a national paid family leave bill in the Build Back Better package. We signed on to the initiative and Alison Pyott met with US Senator Jeanne Shaheen’s office to voice our support. We also provided statements of support including why as a small business this was important to us and our recent paid family leave policy change at Veris. We will continue to support the PL+US network efforts.

What You Can Do

Vote.

Call your congressional representatives and urge them to act to protect women’s access to reproductive choice and health care.

Support organizations that are working to help women get the health care information and services they need while helping to protect reproductive rights for women in the United States:

● Planned Parenthood
● NARAL Pro-Choice America
● Center for Reproductive Rights
● The National Abortion Federation (NAF)