Elizabeth Monteleone, the interim general counsel for Bumble, revealed this new information during a panel discussion this afternoon at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas. Women who had sued and spoken out about the need for professionals, not politicians, to be engaged in their healthcare decisions were included in the panel discussion, which was centered on the "healthcare crisis in Post-Roe America."

Furthermore, Monteleone pointed out that although Bumble is located in Austin, it no longer requires new hires to join the company there.

As a remote-first organization, we... We've helped workers who've made the decision to relocate out of state," Monteleone continued.

Since SB 8, we have witnessed a roughly one-third decrease in the workforce in Texas. "Those workers are opting to relocate," she said to the guests at the function. "I think many people find a variety of laws in Texas incompatible with living a healthy life and being their authentic self," Monteleone continued. It's possible that some of the departures are linked to other Texas laws or proposed laws that are unpopular with Bumble's staff members rather than just this particular piece of legislation.

The creator of the dating app became the first company to sign an amicus brief in favor of the Center for Reproductive Rights' lawsuit, Zurawski v. State of Texas, challenging the Texas abortion statute. According to the lawsuit, doctors are scared to provide abortion care because they fear losing their licenses, paying large fines, or maybe going to jail. As a result, the law is allegedly endangering the lives of pregnant women. The women in this case are suing the state, claiming that the state's abortion statute has forced them to carry out their pregnancies against medical advice. The risks to some women's health increased when they had to travel out of state to receive medical care. Some filed lawsuits due to being forced to bring non-viable pregnancies to term.

The SXSW panel mainly addressed the political implications of this and other laws, such as those that currently aim to limit access to IVF, as well as the psychological and personal costs they place on women. However, Bumble's attorney also brought up the laws' effects on the company.

"We are aware that abortion affects people, but it also has a very detrimental effect on society as a whole, especially on businesses," Monteleone stated. "We examined the lens, and the arguments we made in the brief focused on the higher expenses we face in luring and keeping talent to Texas and in providing healthcare benefits to our staff members.We discovered that we could mix it with this very business-centric argument and assist support the case because of our position—having been formed with women at the center from the beginning—and because we had that voice and legitimacy to begin with.

Following Bumble's announcement, companies from all throughout Texas, including rival Match Group and SXSW, have also signed onto the amicus brief. Some of these companies have expressed concern that they may face comparable difficulties in luring and keeping talent.

"These are factors that [potential employees] take into account when deciding whether to accept a job offer and whether to stay at a job. Monteleone stated, "That locational consideration is a very real factor."

Bumble claimed that since the law's passage, company has expanded its healthcare benefits to include paying for people who “seek the full spectrum of reproductive rights,” which includes gender-affirming care, IVF, surrogacy, abortion, and egg freezing. Similar perks have been provided by other businesses, albeit at their own cost.

For a business like Bumble, which is presently having trouble growing and appealing to a younger audience that appears less interested in dating apps than their older counterparts, these problems are even more urgent. With $273.6 million in revenue and a $32 million net loss, the manufacturer of dating apps reported a poor fourth quarter. Along with these organizational changes—founder Whitney Wolfe Herd resigned as CEO and Lidiane Jones, the former CEO of Slack, was named the company's new CEO—it also announced that it was firing 350 workers.