PROFESSOR PRINCE’S ARTICLE ACCEPTED FOR PUBLICATION BY TULANE LAW REVIEW
March 2023 — Professor Samantha Prince’s article, “Deducting Dobbs: The Tax Treatment of Abortion-Related Travel Benefits,” was accepted for publication by the Tulane Law Review. Her article will appear in its Fall 2023 issue.
When the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization SCOTUS opinion was leaked, nearly 600 companies incorporated abortion-related travel benefits into their employee benefits packages. When the opinion provided states carte blanche to do as they wish regarding abortion access, some states criminalized or significantly limited abortion access. The result of such bans and strict limits is that women will likely need to travel to another state to obtain access. Such travel creates financial, time, and health challenges for women, and disproportionately for women of color. Companies created abortion-related travel benefits to assist women with the aforementioned challenges. Also, they publicly released statements showing support for a woman’s right to choose. Professor Prince’s article contains many of these statements and examples of the benefits themselves. Her article also contains an appendix outlining the policies of numerous well-known companies.
Even though “doing the right thing” was the main impetus for creating these benefits, a recent survey showed that a majority of employers stated that they will offer abortion-related travel benefits within IRS limits. For this reason, Professor Prince focuses on the tax treatment of abortion-related travel benefits as they stand now and the potential issues that could arise due to state laws that criminalize abortion and aiding and abetting.
Professor Prince’s article takes advantage of her expertise in taxation and employee benefits, which she originally developed in practice.
Professor Samantha Prince is an Assistant Professor of Law and Director of Legal Analysis & Writing at Dickinson Law. She has a Master of Laws in Taxation from Georgetown University Law Center and was a partner in a regional law firm where she handled transactional matters that ranged from an initial public offering to regular representation of a publicly-traded company. Most of her clients were small to medium sized businesses and entrepreneurs, including start-ups. A significant part of her practice was in employee benefits and the taxation thereof. An expert in entrepreneurship law, she established the Dickinson Law entrepreneurship program, is an advisor for the Entrepreneurship Law Certificate that is available to students, and is the founder and moderator of the Inside Entrepreneurship Law blog.