Facebook Tells Employees to Stop Discussing Abortion at Work

A Facebook executive reportedly told employees recently that they are prohibited from discussing abortion on Workplace, Facebook’s internal work chat platform.

The Verge reports that an executive for Facebook (now known as Meta) warned employees this week that they are prohibited from talking about abortion on Workplace, an internal version of Facebook used for work discussion and collaboration. The executive said that the decision to ban abortion discussion was due to “an increased risk” that the company could be seen as a “hostile work environment.”

(AMY OSBORNE/AFP/Getty Images)

The policy was reportedly put in place in 2019 but not discussed until recently and prohibits employees from discussing “opinions or debates about abortion being right or wrong, availability or rights of abortion, and political, religious, and humanitarian views on the topic.” The rule is part of the company’s internal “Respectful Communication Policy.”

Some employees have reportedly called on upper management at Facebook to remove the policy following the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade arguing that the ban goes against the rights of employees to talk “respectfully” about issues such as Black Lives Matter, immigration, and transgender rights.

Meta’s VP of HR, Janelle Gale, told employees during an all-hands meeting this week that abortion was “the most divisive and reported topic” by employees on Workplace. Gale stated that “even if people are respectful, and they’re attempting to be respectful about their view on abortion, it can still leave people feeling like they’re being targeted based on their gender or religion.”

Gale stated: “It’s the one unique topic that kind of trips that line on a protected class pretty much in every instance.”

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