How might Roe v. Wade’s overturning affect finance?

A draft majority opinion leaked by Politico suggests the Supreme Court will overturn reproductive rights as they are enshrined in Roe v. Wade. “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start,” Supreme Court Justice Alito writes.

Why should we care?
In addition to the drastic rollback the Supreme Court’s ruling will have on reproductive rights in the United States, it’s also destined to aggravate the relationship between financial institutions and fintechs on one side and conservative state governments on the other. Tensions have already flared up between the two sides, such as in Texas, where the state legislature has blocked local governments from working with banks that have cut off ties to the gun and fossil-fuel industries. And, in the wake of Texas’s near-total ban on abortions in the state in September 2021, Citigroup said it would pay for the travel costs of employees seeking abortions. In a telling softening of rhetoric in the face of criticism from conservative shareholders last week, Citi’s CEO Jane Fraser said the policy was not “a statement about a sensitive issue,” but rather a continuation of the group’s existing reproductive healthcare policies for employees. If the draft majority opinion in question becomes the Supreme Court’s official ruling, then we may expect financial institutions and fintechs to struggle in balancing two priorities at once, and the ball may be in their court to decide what matters more: the health and wellbeing of their employees on one hand, or their unimpeded ability to do business in states with conservative governments on the other. Regardless, with Texas poised to fully ban abortions as soon as the ruling is released, and Florida destined to follow, the SCOTUS ruling could potentially trigger a tech exodus from burgeoning tech capitals like Austin and Miami. “You can have a state with a fantastic incentive structure for business. If top talent doesn’t want to be there, then that becomes hard operationally,” said Jen Stark, senior director of corporate strategy at the Tara Health Foundation.