Roe v. Wade: How corporate America has responded to the Supreme Court draft opinion

Yahoo Finance Editor-in-Chief Andy Serwer looks at how some of America's biggest companies have reacted so far to the news of the Supreme Court draft indicating that Roe v. Wade will be overturned.

Video transcript

SEANA SMITH: Critical debates lately, especially Disney with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, but with the bombshell leak of a draft opinion from the Supreme Court, which will likely overturn Roe versus Wade, the C-suite has been mostly quiet. Yahoo Finance editor-in-chief Andy Serwer is digging into this issue in his column this week, and he joins us now for a preview. Andy, largely quiet, although we have heard some responses. So what are we hearing from corporate America today?

ANDY SERWER: Yeah, I mean, there is sort of a range or maybe a couple of different groups, Seana. I mean, first of all, you have companies that have come out and said they are against overturning Roe v Wade, and there also will be supporting women who live in states where there are restrictions against abortions and actually providing them with, say, transportation to go to other states. And you can see some of those names on the screen right there, like Citi and Lyft and Salesforce.

Then there are a whole bunch of companies that have said-- and there's some more that are supporting. But there are other companies out there that have not weighed in at all. And that includes Walmart, Disney, the aforementioned Disney-- and you can understand, they're a little gun-shy these days. American Airlines is another one as well. But you can't assume that they have an opinion, one way or another.

And by the way, I should mention something, Seana. Companies don't have opinions, right? CEOs have opinions. And there's no legal obligation for them to share their opinions. In fact, often, boards would prefer that they don't. And increasingly they are finding they're having to do that. There's also probably a group of CEOs out there as well who are very much for overturning Roe v Wade. However, they have not-- we haven't been able to find any who wanted to talk or talk on the record.

RACHELLE AKUFFO: So, Andy, to that point then, why aren't we hearing from some of these CEOs who are for overturning?

ANDY SERWER: Yeah, that's a great question, Rachelle, because if you think about it, well, OK, it's fraught to go on the record and talk about these things, right? But because America is so divided when it comes to abortion rights, and there are so many different polls about how many Americans support or oppose to abortion, and then there's nuances within, well, what do you mean and what term and all these kinds of things as well. But basically, if you think about it, some of these CEOs are going on the record saying they oppose. And so maybe they would match a certain percentage of the population. So there must be a certain number who are for overturning Roe v Wade.

But there's one example of a CEO down in Georgia at a company who said that he was supporting when Texas limited abortion rights. And he was dismissed after a couple of days. So there is that out there. I think maybe they're concerned about being trolled on Twitter. And then of course, there is offending potentially women shareholders, employees, and customers. So it's just not at all easy, you guys.

SEANA SMITH: Yeah, and Andy, what does this say, do you think, about the times that we're living in right now? Because America is so divided. We're seeing companies having to take sides like you're talking about, sometimes being forced into the spotlight. And it also comes at a time where there's real gridlock down in Washington still.

ANDY SERWER: Yeah, and Seana, I don't think that's a coincidence. At the same time that we've seen this rise in gridlock, we've also seen it be the case that companies are stepping into the breach. And you can talk about stakeholder capitalism all you want, that it's not just shareholders. They should be thinking about employees, and they should be thinking about customers and the company and the towns that they're situated in.

But, you know, it's really not companies' jobs or CEO's jobs to lead our society forward on these types of issues. It's really the politicians' job. And you're right. I mean, Warren Buffett was just saying in the annual meeting last Saturday, his annual meeting, how divided up we are. He hasn't seen it like this since Roosevelt, which is even before my time. But the politicians need to get together, and they haven't been able to do that. They used to be able to work together across the aisle and bridge the gap. And, you know, boy, I don't know what's going to turn this thing around. But right now, we're in a kind of tribal society, as Warren Buffett characterized it.

SEANA SMITH: We certainly are. All right, Andy Serwer, thanks so much for joining us. And of course, you can check out Andy's column tomorrow.