While the right to abortion has just taken off in the United States, the Quebec company Nuvei offers its American employees to pay up to 4000 US dollars to help them change state or to do so in case of need.

Like Amazon, Apple and Disney, payment tech Nuvei has refused to sit idly by on abortion access in the United States.

Its CEO, Philip Fayer, announced this publicly. Its head of human resources, Nikki Zinman, explained its intentions to the Journal yesterday.

To go to another state

"They [employees] are offered up to $4,000 in reimbursement costs to go to the nearest place where care is legally available," she said.

"We're not going into political debate. It's a very personal and sensitive subject, but we want the team to have access to health care," said the senior executive of Nuvei, which is worth $7.2 billion on the stock market.

Basically, the tech firm doesn't pay the abortion bill, but rather the travel costs of its employees, who have to change states to do so.

Utah, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama, Kentucky, Wisconsin... nine states had already banned abortion as of noon yesterday, three days after the Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade precedent.

The shareholder Fund

Nuvei is headquartered in Montreal. It has some 1,570 employees, including 250 domestically and 270 in the United States.

The Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec (CDPQ) has an investment of between $1 billion and $1.5 billion in Nuvei.

"The CDPQ supports the preservation of acquired fundamental rights of women and of all persons," said its spokesperson, Maxime Chagnon, yesterday.

"We will not comment individually on the specific operations or decisions of our portfolio companies, but we support any initiative by them to protect these rights," he added.

For Yan Cimon, professor of strategy at Laval University, it goes without saying that companies value their employees.

“It is normal that in 2022 companies take measures to promote women's health,” he analyzed.

"It may look simple from Canada, but it's a hot potato

. These companies have courage,” said Yanik Deschenes, president of YPR.

Yesterday, the mayor of Montreal, Valérie Plante, warned that it would be necessary to prepare to welcome American women who want to protect themselves from this right.

For his part, the mayor of Quebec, Bruno Marchand, said he feared the anti-choice "coucous" who might feel justified in using violence.