Bethesda Employees Upset At Company’s Response to Roe v Wade Decision

Employees are frustrated by Bethesda’s unwillingness to support their access to reproductive healthcare in the wake of Roe v Wade.

In the aftermath of the US Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v Wade, many companies have made their stance clear. Since then, Kotaku reports that employees from the studio behind Skyrim and the upcoming Starfield are unhappy with how the company has failed to respond.

The issue is especially dire for employees who are based in Texas. Texas is set to lay down “trigger laws” starting in the summer, which will ban all abortions from the moment of fertilization. Employees of Bethesda are pushing for the studio to make it clear their reproductive rights will be supported.

The studio’s Twitter account tweeted stating their support for people’s “ability to make choices about one’s body.” But they have yet to make any statement proving they will follow up on that belief.

The decision to overturn Roe v Wade has been a massive upheaval for reproductive rights for any birthing people. The employees of Bethesda are not the only ones also frustrated by a company’s response to the decision. Similar responses have been made clear by the employees of WotC in regard to their parent company, Hasbro.

Microsoft, which owns Bethesda, has announced they will provide travel expenses to employees wishing to travel for an abortion. However, according to a former employee of Bethesda’s parent company, has said the benefits are handled separately. And so, this means that employees of Bethesda will not be guaranteed the same benefits as promised by Microsoft.

Author: Matt Sall

Matt has loved games of all kinds his whole life: board, video, war, roleplaying. He's worked as a writer for BoLS since 2017. He's worked as freelance editor for board game rulebooks and has designed many of his own games as well.