They Don’t Care

The featured photo is the headline of an op-ed in today’s hard copy of the Chron. The online version has this headline:

Tech founder: I love Texas. But I’m moving my company because of the abortion ban.

Here is from the op-ed:

The Wall Street Journal recently reported on the surprising downturn in Texas’ once-thriving tech sector, citing return-to-office mandates and the concentration of AI investment in coastal cities as key factors. But there’s another reason for the talent flight that’s rarely acknowledged in these analyses: Texas’ abortion ban is still pushing people and companies away.

I know this firsthand. As the CEO of Ema, an AI-powered women’s health startup, I founded and built my company in Houston (Full disclosure: Hearst Labs invested in Ema). I also had a high-risk pregnancy when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. After that, I no longer felt safe raising a family or scaling a health care company in Texas. 

I love Texas, and moving was a heartbreaking and difficult decision. But I ultimately relocated my family to Massachusetts and gave my employees the freedom to work from any location. Now I’m moving Ema’s headquarters, too. 

Texas’ drop in tech employment and startup growth isn’t just about economic cycles or hybrid work culture. It’s about people. And people, especially those building families and futures, are leaving states that restrict their reproductive freedom – including their access to abortion, OB-GYN services and prenatal care.

New data from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research found that nearly 1 in 5 people planning to have children within the next decade have already moved, or know someone who has moved, because of state abortion bans. The people leading this exodus tend to be younger and highly educated. In other words: the very demographic that fuels tech innovation and entrepreneurship.

When Texas legislators criminalized abortion, they sent a clear message that they were willing to put ideology above individual health and agency. For those of us creating the future of health care, that was a dealbreaker.

What’s more, workers now expect employers to take a stand. According to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, a majority of employed adults (56%) believe that companies should work with lawmakers to protect access to reproductive rights. That number climbs even higher among younger workers and those planning to start families. Over half of adults in that latter group say they’re more likely to accept a job that includes reproductive health benefits.

This isn’t hypothetical. When I shared with our team that Ema would be relocating to Boston, our chief science officer — Morgan Rose, CNM, WHNP-BC, IBCLC — told me that she felt an enormous weight lift. After Morgan survived a miscarriage that could have turned fatal without immediate care, she no longer felt safe living or working in a state that criminalized certain pregnancy outcomes. She said that “the move was not just about business, but about protecting our lives, our families, and our ability to do meaningful work without fear.”

In a nutshell, they don’t care. I am talking about Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. If you are not part of their MAGA base, they don’t care if you move your innovative business out of Texas. They have no need for you. I certainly laud the effort of this CEO to pen an op-ed, but Abbott and Patrick don’t give a sh_t.

_____

Eleven of us – close family and significant others – had dinner last night at a local eatery and I posed the question about THC use. No takers at the table. I oppose a ban because many need it for medical conditions. This headline is from a piece by Chron business columnist Chris Tomlinson:

Gov. Abbott moved Texas toward legal marijuana, setting up a fight in the Legislature

Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick face off over legal THC and marijuana

Here is from the Tomlinson column:

Gov. Greg Abbott is moving Texas closer to legalizing recreational marijuana, but his proposal for regulating its active ingredient must overcome a fractured legislature and a lieutenant governor suffering from reefer madness.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick reiterated his commitment to banning the retail sale of consumable products containing THC, the compound in cannabis that makes you high. He ridiculed the governor’s reasoning in vetoing a total ban that Patrick ramrodded through the legislature.

“What kind of state do we want? What kind of culture do we want?” Patrick asked at a press conference on Monday. “I don’t want a Texas where everybody’s high.”

Abbott and Patrick are partisans in a cannabis civil war. On one side are medical marijuana purveyors licensed to sell doctor-prescribed THC products, who are defending their state-licensed monopoly. On the other is the hemp industry, which, thanks to a legal loophole, sells powerful and popular products in corner stores that also get you high.

Here is the entire Tomlinson column: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott vetoes THC ban, moves to legalize marijuana.

I must admit, I am enjoying the tussle between Abbott and Patrick. It keeps this issue up front and center. It hurts Patrick and his MAGA base. Good.

_____

The Chron E-Board also weighed in on this. See their online headline:

Greg Abbott got THC right. Texas needs smart laws, not a ban. | Editorial

Here is how the E-Board take starts and ends. The start:

When the clock struck midnight on Sunday, Dan Patrick’s dream of a Texas ban on recreational marijuana went up in smoke. At least for now. 

Gov. Greg Abbott’s decision to veto one of Patrick’s high-priority bills did not seem to go over well with the lieutenant governor. But even if it sours the relationship between the two most powerful politicians in the state, Abbott made the right decision. Essentially, he’s hit pause, giving lawmakers a chance to reconsider in a special session. Texas lawmakers helped create our state’s wild, utterly unregulated approach to THC. Now it’s on them to clean up the problems without punishing hemp farmers and retail shop owners trying to make an honest living.

And the end:

Abbott has the right idea. Now that THC products are widely available and wildly popular in Texas, it’s too late to close Pandora’s box. Banning THC would have been a gift for black market dealers. But maintaining a Wild West status quo while the courts sort things out won’t make anyone safer or healthier. Farmers and businesses, as well as investors, employees and customers, deserve stability and thoughtful regulation. 

Here is the entire E-Board take: Gov. Abbott got THC right. Texas needs smart laws, not a ban.

I am thinking Patrick is going to be on the losing side, and he is not going to take to losing.

_____

We host the Phillies this evening at Daikin Park on Dollar Dog Night.