Group of DOJ employees calls for federal employees to be offered administrative leave to travel for abortions

A coalition of Department of Justice employees is asking the Biden administration to direct federal agencies to give employees administrative leave to travel for abortions.

"The DOJ Gender Equality Network (DOJ GEN) is deeply concerned about the ability of hundreds of thousands of federal employees and their family members to access reproductive healthcare because of restrictive state laws that are already, or may soon be, in effect in their states," the group's letter declared. "We believe that there are actions the federal government ... can take to mitigate the harm to Department of Justice employees and other federal workers.

"As an initial step, we ask that the Administration swiftly consider requiring federal agencies to grant administrative leave to cover the time it takes an employee, or an employee's family member, to travel to another state to obtain reproductive healthcare services not available in their own state due to restrictive laws," the DOJ GEN wrote in the letter.