* Bloomberg…
Eli Lilly & Co., one of Indiana’s largest employers, said the state’s freshly passed restrictions on abortion would force the drug maker to “plan for more employment growth outside our home state.”
A growing list of companies, including Citigroup Inc., Apple Inc., Bumble Inc. and Levi Strauss & Co., are offering benefits for reproductive-care services in states that have imposed restrictions. But Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly’s announcement marks a swift escalation by a multinational that employs 10,000 people in Indiana, where the drug maker was founded in 1876.
* The company’s full statement…
* Terry Cosgrove at Personal PAC…
Good for them.
More corporations need to be following Lilly out of states with laws that put the health and lives of women at risk.
We’d gladly welcome Eli Lilly to Illinois, a state that respects women and trusts them to make medical decisions for themselves.
* Some more context…
Lilly has had somewhat of a complicated relationship with its native state lately. Earlier this year, the company’s CEO David Ricks criticized the state in a speech before the Economic Club of Indiana, stating, “[o]ur education attainment in the state is not good.”
“The ability to reskill the workforce, I think, could improve,” he added at the event. “Health, life and inclusion, overall, I think, conditions rank poorly nationally in our state. And also workforce preparedness, also related to reskilling, is a liability for us,” Ricks said.
At the same time, Ricks noted Indiana’s healthcare costs exceed those of neighboring states, which makes the Hoosier State unattractive to potential employers.
Still, one month later, Lilly laid out $2.1 billion to erect two new manufacturing sites in Indiana’s Boone County, with plans to add 500 new jobs along the way.
* And Lilly isn’t the only one…
Cummins, an engine manufacturing company headquartered in Columbus, Ind., has nearly 10,000 employees in the state. It has said it opposes the law.
“Cummins believes that women should have the right to make reproductive healthcare decisions as a matter of gender equity,” spokesperson Jon Mills told NPR. “The right to make decisions regarding reproductive health ensures that women have the same opportunity as others to participate fully in our workforce and that our workforce is diverse.”
Mills said parts of the law conflict with the company’s beliefs and will “impede our ability to attract and retain top talent and influence our decisions as we continue to grow our footprint with a focus on selecting welcoming and inclusive environments.”
* PPIA on the Indiana legislation…
Statement attributed to Jennifer Welch, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Illinois Action:
“We are outraged that the Indiana General Assembly has banned most abortions, denying Indiana residents access to essential health care. This dangerous ban is another devastating blow for the Midwest, which is quickly becoming a vast desert for abortion care. Now people in Indiana are forced to either travel to a state like Illinois for care, seek an alternative means of ending their pregnancy or remain pregnant against their will.
I want to be clear, abortion is still safe and legal in Illinois and will remain that way. Planned Parenthood of Illinois (PPIL) has been preparing for the overturning of Roe and subsequent state bans for years and has taken active steps to meet increasing demand. PPIL opened a new health center in Flossmoor, near the Indiana border, in 2018, in anticipation that our neighbors would likely lose abortion access after the fall of Roe. The Flossmoor health center has already seen its out-of-state abortion patients triple in the weeks following the SCOTUS ruling in June.
This is clear evidence that abortion restrictions and bans do not stop people from having abortions; restrictions and bans only make it harder for people to access safe reproductive health care where they live. While Indiana used its special session to take away a person’s right to abortion care, in Illinois we look forward to further protecting and expanding abortion access in order to meet this rising patient surge so people can access the abortion care they need and deserve, no matter who they are or where they live.”
Thoughts?
*** UPDATE *** Greg Hinz…
Illinois won’t necessarily try to grab the headquarters, though that would be nice. But given Illinois’ competitive cost of living compared to other big states that might make a pitch (like New York and California) and its talent advantage over Indiana, a fairly large investment here is potentially within reach, my source says. […]
“The Governor is in regular contact with numerous business leaders, both in Illinois and nationally, to discuss Illinois’ competitive strengths—including the fact that we have enshrined reproductive rights into law while others are stripping them away,” his spokeswoman, Jordan Abudayyeh, said in a statement. […]
Sources also report that some Chicago developers, who have been busily adding lab space in the city designed to appeal to biopharma companies, have reached out to Lilly on their own.
The bottom line: It’s a lot easier to set up, say, a new research center just over the border than it would be on the other side of the country.
- Amalia - Monday, Aug 8, 22 @ 10:15 am:
yep, the new law is awful. and the comment about education is important also. Cross the border, Lilly and Cummins.
- John Lopez - Monday, Aug 8, 22 @ 10:26 am:
Eli Lilly statement is an empty threat.
No company is going to base its growth decisions on whether a state has abortion-on-demand laws.
Could we be seeing some “economic blackmail”, and NFL removing a Super Bowl from a state with abortion restrictions? Maybe.
But those bluffs need to be called.
- Grandson of Man - Monday, Aug 8, 22 @ 10:26 am:
Illinois should launch an aggressive campaign to lure businesses and residents away from backward-moving red states. It’s also reported that some doctors don’t want to practice in anti-abortion states.
- Telly - Monday, Aug 8, 22 @ 10:28 am:
Lilly seems to be preparing to move the “main office” corporate jobs and engineering labs to blue states to attract young college grads, while locating the manufacturing plants in red states to take advantage of “right to work” cheap labor. They won’t be alone.
- Norseman - Monday, Aug 8, 22 @ 10:28 am:
Will the Indiana MAGA GOP follow Florida’s lead seek to punish Eli Lilly for its opposition to the party’s dogma?
- ND Alum - Monday, Aug 8, 22 @ 10:30 am:
I already know one female Notre Dame student who is transferring out. She has a rheumatoid arthritis and takes methotrexate. ND student health won’t fill it for her anymore, because it can cause abortion — and they also won’t give her birth control to prevent her from getting pregnant while on the methotrexate because, you know, Notre Dame. She could not find a pharmacy in South Bend willing to fill it on her insurance, and she doesn’t really want to spend the next two years of her life waiting to see if the police show up at her door because she has arthritis and takes a drug that Indiana has decided is an abortifacent. Probably that will get sorted out in the long term, but not before she’ll be done with college. So she’s leaving, and transferring to Northwestern.
It’s not just people who might get pregnant who have to leave states like Indiana. It’s people with autoimmune disorders, people with disabilities, who now can’t access appropriate medical care because of absurdly overbroad abortion restrictions.
Great work, as usual, GOP, on harassing the disabled and excluding them from necessary services. Ladies and gents, your pro-life party.
- Blue Dog - Monday, Aug 8, 22 @ 10:32 am:
Ely Lilly. the moral compass of the midwest.
- Jocko - Monday, Aug 8, 22 @ 10:34 am:
Indiana law requires that those with non-lethal fetal abnormalities be carried to term. Early death or profound impairment is the mother’s problem.
- Big Dipper - Monday, Aug 8, 22 @ 10:36 am:
Yet Kass and his ilk talk up/flee to Indiana as if it’s paradise. Kass cited crime in Chicago. Um, have you been to Gary?
- Blue Dog - Monday, Aug 8, 22 @ 10:36 am:
bet Ely wishes they had that $1.42 billion dollar opiod settlement back so they could help relocate.
- Blue Dog - Monday, Aug 8, 22 @ 10:37 am:
or better yet, maybe Ely can raise the price of insulin to help pay relocation costs.
- Larry Bowa Jr. - Monday, Aug 8, 22 @ 10:38 am:
Given the nature of their business Lilly probably doesn’t even benefit from what I usually see touted as Indiana’s competitiveness advantage vis a vis Illinois: their total lack of adequate workers’ compensation protections.
In Indiana when an employee gets his arm cut off at the shoulder and loses his trade for life, you’re out maybe $50k and he becomes the state’s problem thereafter.
It costs a lot more for WC insurance in Illinois because we actually require employers to provide meaningful benefits to injured workers to allow them to survive. I’d expect that’s a part of the reason healthcare costs are high in Indiana, because every public health entity but employers and private sector comp insurers are paying for the healthcare of people hurt at work.
- SWSider - Monday, Aug 8, 22 @ 10:44 am:
Talk is cheap.
- City Guy - Monday, Aug 8, 22 @ 10:53 am:
It would be interesting to see who received political contributions from the companies and their executives for the past decade.
- 14th ward - Monday, Aug 8, 22 @ 10:54 am:
I agree with Blue dog. Just started reading “American Cartel” this book, and the shame of our leaders and government officials. On a 2nd note, cheaper labor will keep the plants in Indiana. But we can hope for the best.
- Last Bull Moose - Monday, Aug 8, 22 @ 10:56 am:
The Indiana of my youth had a strong moralistic streak offset by an even stronger “mind your own business” streak. Times change but I think a constitutional referendum based on keeping the government out of private family decisions would support abortion rights.
- Crispy - Monday, Aug 8, 22 @ 10:59 am:
As Grandson of Man mentioned, healthcare systems in states with bans are reportedly also having difficulty recruiting OB/GYNs. There’s a front-page story in today’s Washington Post about the problem.
- Annonin' - Monday, Aug 8, 22 @ 11:06 am:
Seems like a simple message that emphasizes all health care services are available would be a great signal to send. The notion that Illinois is promoting an abortion oasis is not a good one. Then family decision making should kick in and IN falls off nearly all list. Travel expenses are not an alternative.
- Arsenal - Monday, Aug 8, 22 @ 11:10 am:
==Ely Lilly. the moral compass of the midwest. ==
If we’re supposed to mourn folks like Citadel leaving Illinois, “morality” clearly isn’t part of the calculus.
- New Day - Monday, Aug 8, 22 @ 11:11 am:
Illinois has two things that other states and many Red states don’t. Plentiful water and bodily autonomy. The result is that we should be attracting more businesses here in the months and years ahead. Illinois has bright days to come.
- XonXoff - Monday, Aug 8, 22 @ 11:19 am:
If I were in Indiana looking at the number of GOP running unopposed in November, I’d be sending up a flare too.
- Jibba - Monday, Aug 8, 22 @ 11:19 am:
If JB isn’t personally on the phone every day then he is missing the best chance we’ve had in decades.
- Sideline Watcher - Monday, Aug 8, 22 @ 11:25 am:
“No company is going to base its growth decisions on whether a state has abortion-on-demand laws.”
When it impacts half of the workforce, yes some of them will. I’m really curious about HIPPA laws. What happened to the privacy of healthcare situations. Wouldn’t all of these enforcement provisions run smack into “I’m federally protected from telling you anything and you can’t see my medical health records.
Oh wait, that changes if it’s a crime right? In Indiana now, all of your medications that can be used to prevent or terminate an unwanted pregnancy are now “potential evidence” whether they are used for that purpose or not. Like all the ways birth control, a hormone therapy, is used for more than just birth control. So you have to work to recruit people, including many in the disabled community, or with certain medical conditions, who feel comfortable working in a state where they will be forced to be pregnant against their will, and if that time has passed a woman by, then it impacts their daughters or anyone else they love who can possibly become pregnant against their will. That’s freaking horrifying, and the real economic blackmail at play here, where this law prevents women and those who can become pregnant, from fully participating in the economic stream. Especially since it won’t stop abortions.
- Blue Dog - Monday, Aug 8, 22 @ 11:25 am:
sort of funny that Cummins would enter in the fray. considering that 40% of their engine manufacturing is done in China. China can either mandate an abortion or deny an abortion depending on how they want to control abortion.
- Ares - Monday, Aug 8, 22 @ 11:32 am:
Many “red state” companies are receiving state economic incentives, which will be revoked if the companies dare speak up.
- cermak_rd - Monday, Aug 8, 22 @ 11:34 am:
New Day,
We also have private universities with research labs and a highly educated workforce (over 20% of IL have at least a bachelor compared to 15% of Indiana). And a major city that is cheaper to live in than NYC or LA.
- MisterJayEm - Monday, Aug 8, 22 @ 11:39 am:
“Ely Lilly. the moral compass of the midwest.”
Please.
You’ve posted far too many comments to start pretending that you care about whether a business is “moral” or not.
– MrJM
- Almost the Weekend - Monday, Aug 8, 22 @ 11:41 am:
Blue Dog wanting to hold corporations accountable for voicing their first amendment right. The mental hurdles the current GOP jumps through to make their arguments is worse than the cancel culture bubble that exists by the liberals on social media.
- Lucky Pierre - Monday, Aug 8, 22 @ 11:53 am:
Maybe Illinois would have a better chance to attract businesses and their workers if they worked across the aisle to improve economic development.
North Carolina has a Democratic Governor who leads the state with the #1 ranked economy (Illinois is 44th) 12th ranked state workforce (Illinois is 26) and is #22 in business friendliness (Illinois is 40th)
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/07/13/americas-top-states-for-business-2022-the-full-rankings.html
- Nick - Monday, Aug 8, 22 @ 12:06 pm:
Not that I’m usually in favor of such things but I wonder if there aren’t some tax cuts/incentives/regulatory changes which could be enacted right now to try and take advantage of this?
- hisgirlfriday - Monday, Aug 8, 22 @ 12:21 pm:
Hope they can look at attracting companies to more than just Chicago area.
For a company like Eli Lilly, that is only a 2-hour drive from their HQ to UIUC researchers. And there is an Eli Lilly lab in Clinton, Indiana that is a 75-minute drive from Champaign.
- Ebenezer - Monday, Aug 8, 22 @ 12:22 pm:
“No company is going to base its growth decisions on whether a state has abortion-on-demand laws.”
It is easy to underestimate how many mid-tier relocation decisions start with where leadership wants to live and reasons backwards from there.
Even more common is thinking how your key talent will respond to the location, and these days, how will their spouse/long term partner find the career prospects and ammenities.
Think for a moment about the technical/scientific/engineering staff they are trying to recruit, and how they will react to moving to a state that makes this their signature issue.
John Lopez, I take the thrust of your comment to be that numbers will drive a relocation decision, and I agree. What you heard was Eli Lilly saying: You just made recruiting the people we need to Indiana more expensive. How are we going to handle it? We are going to hire them somewhere else.
Its not personal, its not wokeness, its just math.
- Big Dipper - Monday, Aug 8, 22 @ 12:32 pm:
==if they worked across the aisle==
Why would a supermajority need to work across the aisle for a handful of unneeded votes?
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Aug 8, 22 @ 12:37 pm:
=== Maybe Illinois would have a better chance to attract businesses===
Google is coming to the former JRTC.
Another day, another day of - Lucky Pierre - finding nothing good in Illinois, apparently
===North Carolina===
If NC is such a bastion of good, it’s puzzling why you are here:
Your idea of reforms can’t find 60/71 or 30/36, and with Abortion front and center and Bailey leading the ticket, you see either chamber flipping?
- Lucky Pierre - Monday, Aug 8, 22 @ 12:42 pm:
Perhaps to incorporate some ideas that have been successful in other states?
Republicans hold a 14 point lead on which party is better for the economy
https://morningconsult.com/2022/03/30/inflation-republicans-democrats-midterms-trust-survey/
- Nearly Normal - Monday, Aug 8, 22 @ 12:48 pm:
Ah, Indiana where the modern Ku Klux Klan ran supreme during the 1920’s. Racism is still an issue there with the state not coming to terms with their history and bias. During the Civil War, the state legislature was dominated by pro-Southern Democrats. They supported the Democrat Gen. McClellan who seemed conciliatory to the Confederacy. Knowing that their soldiers in the Union Army were mostly pro-Lincoln they were not going to allow them to vote absentee in the 1864 election.
- Pundent - Monday, Aug 8, 22 @ 12:48 pm:
=No company is going to base its growth decisions on whether a state has abortion-on-demand laws.=
I guess you don’t think that the voices of their young, skilled, educated workforce count? Or maybe you think they’re easily replaceable in a state that already scores poorly on education, health and quality of life?
If we’re to believe that businesses are leaving Illinois in droves over issues like property taxes why wouldn’t the same hold true in a state such as Indiana with all of the challenges that it faces which now include a ban on abortions?
- Original Rambler - Monday, Aug 8, 22 @ 12:53 pm:
I won’t hold my breath waiting for a company to announce it is making a business location decision based on abortion accessibility.
- H-W - Monday, Aug 8, 22 @ 1:20 pm:
@Lucky - the CNBC article mentions 88 metrics, and lists ten. You chose three metrics - three metrics in which IL ranks low. IL ranks high in several metrics, and overall is ranks ahead of the median. Cherry-picking data points to suggest what is not true is misrepresenting reality. Some call it politicking.
- Cool Papa Bell - Monday, Aug 8, 22 @ 1:27 pm:
=Hope they can look at attracting companies to more than just Chicago area.=
Here’s the thing. It’s pretty much Chicago or Chicagoland or bust. Lilly isn’t going to move to Champaign or Bloomington or Peoria. That’s the not the marketplace anymore.
=I won’t hold my breath waiting for a company to announce it is making a business location decision based on abortion accessibility.=
They might not come out and say it. But they will talk about it terms or workforce access. The ability to land and keep talented people in the company. How this city fits our vision for the coming decades of growth.
For a place like Lilly too - think what Indiana looks like to the best and brightest who move here from international cities. Permitless carry of firearms, severe restrictions on health choices, is that a place that screams come live here?
=I guess you don’t think that the voices of their young, skilled, educated workforce count? Or maybe you think they’re easily replaceable in a state that already scores poorly on education, health and quality of life?=
Yep.
Cummins getting antsy is a shame. Anyone been to Columbus, IN? The impact that company had is awesome. I doubt they ever leave. But any city in America would be lucky to have them.
- Anon324 - Monday, Aug 8, 22 @ 1:32 pm:
==bet Ely wishes they had that $1.42 billion dollar opiod settlement back so they could help relocate.==
For the sake of accuracy, Lilly’s settlement was for off-label marketing related to Zyprexa. It had nothing to do with opioids. It was also back in 2009–if you think a company with a current market cap of about $285 billion with roughly $48 billion in assets is still being restricted by a settlement from 2009, you should probably take a look at their quarterly and annual reports.
- supplied_demand - Monday, Aug 8, 22 @ 1:36 pm:
==I won’t hold my breath waiting for a company to announce it is making a business location decision based on abortion accessibility. ==
Business relocations happen for worker quality-of-life reasons. Companies moving from rural areas to cities (Kellogg) are an example. Citadel is claiming their move is for similar reasons. Abortion restrictions, and the uncertainty they cast on reproduction/healthcare (IUDs, IVF, certain medications, etc.) will certainly impact quality-of-life for workers.
- JS Mill - Monday, Aug 8, 22 @ 2:02 pm:
=Republicans hold a 14 point lead on which party is better for the economy=
Not in Illinois, hence the super minority status.
If you want to cut people’s wages just heave the integrity to say that.
That isn’t how you grow an economy, but you know, North Carolina.
Illinois, at last check, had the 5th largest GDP in the country. That is a strong indicator of our economic might. When you are on of the largest, growth percentages tend to be smaller.
North Carolina is 11th, almost 33% smaller than Illinois and only grew at 2.9% versus our 2.1% which means in terms of actual GDP dollars, they are losing ground.
Uhaul.com has some good deals if you want to move to NC.
- Person 8 - Monday, Aug 8, 22 @ 2:08 pm:
Illinois should also be making a push in these states, near campus towns, to try to attract teachers. Not only will we pay them more, but this issue could help attract more candidates.
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Aug 8, 22 @ 2:08 pm:
===Republicans hold a 14 point lead on which party is better for the economy===
1) That was in MARCH. March
2) Since June, since Roe being overturned, how many folks *trust* Republicans? How many women trust *Republicans* with their health choices.
3) Your continued “cherry picking” of outdated data is your feature, not a bug. Your bot programming misses, again
- Demoralized - Monday, Aug 8, 22 @ 3:39 pm:
==North Carolina has a Democratic Governor who leads the state with the #1 ranked economy==
==Republicans hold a 14 point lead on which party is better for the economy==
You made both of these statements. In the same post. You can’t even be consistent in the same post for crying out loud. Are you ever going to do better?
- Bridgette - Monday, Aug 8, 22 @ 5:22 pm:
Yes abort your baby so you can stay in your soul crushing corporate job making more money for us. What an inspiring message from the mostly white men running corporate America.
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Aug 8, 22 @ 5:25 pm:
===…so you can stay in your soul crushing corporate job making more money for us===
Please don’t operate heavy machinery or drive a vehicle. Wait it out.
- G'Kar - Monday, Aug 8, 22 @ 5:53 pm:
==Illinois should also be making a push in these states, near campus towns, to try to attract teachers.==
And once they are explained Tier Two Pensions, they will laugh, and laugh, and laugh about coming to Illinois.
- Big Dipper - Monday, Aug 8, 22 @ 6:23 pm:
==What an inspiring message from the mostly white men running corporate America.==
I’m sure you have equal disdain for the mostly white men in state legislatures who want to hijack women’s bodies and force them to have babies against their wills.
- Person 8 - Monday, Aug 8, 22 @ 9:43 pm:
===And once they are explained Tier Two Pensions, they will laugh, and laugh, and laugh about coming to Illinois.===
Yes, because Indiana’s retirement plan(s) are so much better than tier 2. I mean if it’s so bad they could choose tier 3, which is similar to one of Indiana’s plans.
As bad as tier 2 is, it’s at the very least on equal par with most red states pension plans.
- Pundent - Monday, Aug 8, 22 @ 10:03 pm:
=As bad as tier 2 is, it’s at the very least on equal par with most red states pension plans.=
Arizona, which is often touted as the gold standard for stripping public pensions now finds itself with one of the lowest teacher salaries in the country and 2,000 openings. Texas has billboards in AZ enticing teachers to relocate for better pay. So yeah, I don’t think a race to the bottom benefits anyone.