Dick’s Sporting Goods Sued over Abortion Travel Payments

A legal advocacy non-profit is demanding an investigation into Dick’s Sporting Goods for allegedly discriminating against mothers after the company announced it would reimburse abortion-related travel, according to a letter.

Dick’s Sporting Goods allows up to $4,000 in travel reimbursement for an employee, spouse or dependent, to receive an abortion, President of Dick’s Sporting Goods Lauren Hobert announced on LinkedIn. America First Legal (AFL) requested that the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) conduct a civil rights investigation into the alleged discrimination, the Wednesday letter states.

Dick’s does not provide equal compensation for employees, spouses or dependents who have just given birth and such discrimination is illegal under Title VII, the press release claimed.

“This is a big company and the practices that they are engaging in, while they might make as virtue signals and they might have utility for the company, they certainly don’t create shareholder value,” America First Legal Senior Counselor and Director of Oversight Reed D. Rubinstein told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “They also kind of demonstrate the perverse effects and frankly the destructive effects of this most extreme corporate wokeness because abortion and racial borders have absolutely nothing to do with selling sporting goods.”

The organization included other allegations in its letter, such as illegal employment practices by using quotas in its workforce and hiring workers on the basis of race and gender, the press release claimed.

The sporting goods company announced its travel compensation following the U.S. Supreme Court’s June decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. The 6-3 decision ended nationwide legal abortions, giving states the ultimate ruling on the matter.

“It’s just so pernicious, and so divisive, and so dangerous, and so utterly disconnected from the business, in this case, selling sporting goods. It needs to be called out and it needs to be stopped,” Rubinstein told the DCNF.

Dick’s Sporting Goods and EEOC did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request to comment.