Why the C.E.O. Behind Match.com and Tinder Took a Stand on the Texas Abortion Law
After all the hubbub and media attention (and the backlash) to the state’s now-defunct Texas law that sought to mandate that abortionists tell women seeking abortions about the potential harm of the procedure, the C.E.O. of Match.com and the head of Tinder is going beyond pro-choice to defend the state’s law.
In a New York Times op-ed, Richard Grenier, Tinder’s chairman and chief executive, has been outspoken in his defense of the state’s law. He calls the law “very dangerous” and “a violation of basic health and safety” and argues that Texas was right to do what it did. “There are better ways to make sure a woman gets the health care she deserves,” Grenier writes.
But this is not the first time the company has spoken out against abortion bans; it has also opposed laws in Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, and other states that aim at restricting or banning abortion. As the Times reports:
Earlier this year, Grenier, the former head of J.P. Morgan Chase, penned an essay in The Wall Street Journal that drew a sharp contrast between the views of venture capital investors and the views of some of his own employees. Writing in response to a former employee who said the company would not fund a startup that practiced abortions, Grenier wrote: “In many ways I’ve been surprised by the willingness of venture capitalists to fund companies that violate people’s rights.” It’s this kind of thinking that makes it so hard to get a business plan from a venture capitalist, he argued.
The Texas law was passed in 2011 after 20-year-old University of Texas student Tyler Clementi, who was gay and later committed suicide as a result of the state’s “heartbeat” abortion bill, and his roommate killed themselves. That bill passed anyway in the face of a lawsuit by the Center for Reproductive Rights, the Texas Civil Rights Project, and the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health (NLIRH). The law, which was challenged in court by the ACLU and Planned Parenthood, was ultimately judged to be unconstitutional.
But Grenier did not want to call
