The National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) will present a shareholder proposal at Visa's annual meeting challenging the company's healthcare policies related to gender-transitioning treatments. The proposal aims to investigate potential psychological and medical risks associated with the company's current benefits coverage.
Claire Abernathy, a 20-year-old detransitioner, will address Visa's board of directors, sharing her personal experience of medical intervention beginning at age 12. Abernathy claims that therapists and medical professionals rapidly guided her toward body-altering procedures, including testosterone treatment and a double mastectomy, which occurred within just eight months of her initial therapy referral.
The shareholder proposal highlights specific medical procedures covered by Visa's CIGNA health insurance, including mastectomies, penectomies, vaginectomies, orchiectomies, and salpingooophorectomies. NLPC argues that these coverage policies potentially expose the company to future legal risks, particularly as detransitioner lawsuits become more prevalent.
The proposal draws attention to guidance from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which considers failure to provide equivalent benefits based on gender identity as discriminatory. The Securities and Exchange Commission has previously acknowledged that de-transitioning individuals fall under such classifications when evaluating corporate compensation practices.
NLPC's intervention represents a broader challenge to corporate healthcare policies that provide gender-affirming treatments. By bringing this proposal to Visa's shareholders, the organization seeks to prompt a comprehensive review of the potential long-term medical and psychological consequences of current healthcare coverage approaches.
