By Liz Moyer
Investing.com -- Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX) shares are down 3.5% in Monday trading after the coffee chain joined other large employers in agreeing to reimburse workers for travel expenses if they need to seek medical treatment away from home.
Specifically, the company said "Regardless of where you live or what you believe, partners enrolled in Starbucks healthcare will now be offered reimbursement for eligible travel expenses when accessing abortion or gender-affirming procedures when those services are not available within 100 miles of a partner’s home. This benefit will also apply to dependents of partners enrolled in Starbucks healthcare," according to a letter on the company's website by Starbucks' Sara Kelly, acting executive vice president of Partner Resources.
Recently, Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN), Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL), Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C), and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) have instituted similar policies, prompted by the possibility that the Supreme Court could strike down the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that ensured access to abortion.
Starbucks has 240,000 U.S. employees, and the company has been clashing with some workers as they vote to form unions at stores in the U.S.
So far this year, Starbucks shares are down 37%.