The studios are ignoring the showrunners’ specific abortion safety requirements

After more than a thousand showrunners mobilized behind some of the world’s most popular shows to demand the adoption of studio-level abortion-specific safety protocols, those studios responded with a collective response Wednesday night. The letter tries to reassure showrunners that they share the same concerns, but doesn’t address the showrunners’ specific requests. She also ignores calls to stop donating to anti-choice politicians.

However, the response came under the showrunners’ deadline for a response, which was 11:59 p.m. PT on Aug. 10.

On July 28, 411 TV executives and showrunners sent separate letters to studios outlining four calls for specific safety protocols for pregnant employees in states that have or will soon ban abortion. The showrunners want systems to ensure safe, funded, and private travel for a staff member seeking an abortion; they want treatment protocols for “ectopic pregnancies and other pregnancy complications” during production; and they want guaranteed guarantees “of criminal and civil protection” for those who assist a staff member with an abortion.

The letters also called on the companies to “immediately stop all political donations to anti-abortion candidates and political action committees.” The group of showrunners – which includes Shonda Rhimes, Issa Rae, Natasha Lyonne, Mindy Kaling and many others – set a deadline of 10 business days from the exhibition.

Those letters were followed up on Aug. 1 by 594 male showrunners who issued a statement of support, which wrote: “Access to abortion doesn’t just affect people who can get pregnant. It affects us all.” The men’s letters were issued by all replying to the first.

These demands from the creative community were prompted by the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision of June 24, which brought Roe v. Wade, effectively ending federal protections for access to abortions.

The studios’ response references each union’s health plans, stating that “several of these industry health plans have already adopted changes that provide for reimbursement of travel expenses related to securing abortion services for participants and their dependents residing in states or work where such services cannot lawfully be obtained.”

It goes on to say that they “continue to explore ways we can best care for our staff and workers who support our productions,” which seems to open a door for more protocols to be rolled out.

The letter, signed by AMC Networks, Amazon Studios, Apple TV+, NBCUniversal, Netflix, Paramount, The Walt Disney Company and Warner Bros. Discovery, the original recipients of the showrunners’ activities, ends on a buoyant note: “We’re looking I look forward to working with you to continue creating great content for our audiences around the world.”

The coalition of showrunners has retained a publicist who declined to comment.

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Thank you for your letter dated July 28, 2022. We share your concerns about the health, safety and well-being of our dedicated employees and the people who support our productions. We believe they should have access to safe and effective healthcare and their privacy should be protected.

Each of our individually designed company health plans offers comprehensive health protection for our respective employees. We have independently updated our respective employees – who live and work across the country – as plans and policies change and expand to provide reproductive care and other support now needed in states where access is available abortion is restricted or prohibited.

Most script and television production workers are covered by industry health plans administered jointly by union and management trustees through collective bargaining. In partnership with various industry health plan staff and the union administrators of those plans, our management trustees have worked quickly to review existing health care benefits and several of these industry health plans have already adopted changes that allow for reimbursement of travel expenses related to ensuring Abortion services provide participants and their dependents who reside or work in states where such services cannot be lawfully obtained. We know the industry’s other healthcare plans will be considering similar changes this month. Participants in the various industry plans have received notification of these changes directly from the plans.

We are pleased that our industry partners have been quick to address this important issue and are committed to continuing to explore ways we can best help our employees and workers who support our productions.

We would like to assure you that we are individually focused on supporting the health, safety, well being and privacy of our respective employees and those supporting our productions as we continue to monitor this evolving situation. We look forward to working with you to continue creating great content for our audiences around the world.

Signed,

AMC Networks, Amazon Studios, Apple TV+, NBCUniversal, Netflix, Paramount, The Walt Disney Company, Warner Bros. Discovery