Match Group CEO starts fund for Texas employees seeking abortions following state ban
Two dating apps based in Texas have come out against a state law banning abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, with the CEO of one starting a fund to help employees seeking abortions outside the state.
The chief executive of Dallas-based Match Group, Shar Dubey, said she is setting up a fund to help any of the company's Texas workers who may need to travel out of state for the procedure.
Rival dating app Bumble also criticized the law and announced on Instagram it will donate funds to six organizations that support women's reproductive rights.
Both companies are led by women.
Match Group CEO Shar Dubey is creating the fund on her own and not through the company, Match Group said. The company owns several popular dating apps, including Tinder, OkCupid, Hinge and PlentyOfFish, and has about 400 employees in Texas, according to the Dallas Morning News.
Dubey spoke out against the law in a memo to employees Thursday.
"I immigrated to America from India over 25 years ago and I have to say, as a Texas resident, I am shocked that I now live in a state where women's reproductive laws are more regressive than most of the world, including India," she said in the memo.
Dubey said her fund would help cover any additional costs incurred by Match Group employees if they need to travel outside the state to seek an abortion.
Her statement came after Austin-based Bumble, which is led by CEO Whitney Wolfe, spoke out against the law on social media.
"Bumble is women-founded and women-led, and from day one we've stood up for the most vulnerable. We'll keep fighting against regressive laws like #SB8," Bumble said on Twitter. The group listed six reproductive rights groups in an Instagram post, and said that any individual seeking help should contact one of those organizations.
The Texas law, which took effect Tuesday after the Supreme Court denied an emergency appeal from abortion providers, bans abortions once medical professionals can detect cardiac activity, usually around six weeks and often before women know they're pregnant.
Rather than be enforced by government authorities, the law gives private citizens the right to file civil suits and collect financial damages against anyone aiding an abortion, rather than the women who are undergoing the procedure. It does not make exceptions for rape or incest.
The law constitutes the biggest curb to the constitutional right to an abortion in decades.
