Universal Music Employee Fired for Refusing to Work After Roe v. Wade Decision: 'His Job, His Choice'

An employee claims he was let go from his job after refusing to work because he was upset by the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade.

Michael Lopez, a production coordinator for Universal Music Enterprises, criticized the company in a missive posted on LinkedIn, the New York Post reported Monday.

“I’m a queer brown person and I was fired during Pride month for speaking up in defense of abortion rights at Universal Music Enterprises (UMe) (a subsidiary of Universal Music Group),” Lopez’s note read:

Last Friday, like countless other folks, I was devastated by the news of the supreme court’s attack on abortion rights. Paired with the flood of anti-queer and anti-trans legislation, it’s been hard to process how company’s expect us to be productive while our rights are being stripped away. Especially when our company has been donating to several of these politicians (link in comments).

He said one of his tasks involved sending an email that went to 275 people, therefore, he sent a message that read, “I’m in mourning due to the attack on people with uteruses in the US.”

Lopez then demanded Vivendi and Universal Music Group stop donating to politicians such as Marsha Blackburn, Ken Buck, Victoria Spartz, and others.

The United States Supreme Court recently overruled Roe v. Wade, holding in the Dobbs case that the Constitution did not provide a right to abortion. The court’s decision returned the issue back to the states, Breitbart News reported June 24:

Roe was handed down in 1973 in a 7-2 decision, holding that the U.S. Constitution includes a constitutional right to abortion, despite the fact that abortion is not found in the text, structure, or history of the Constitution, and the nation went more than 180 years without ever noticing it existed. It has been one of the most divisive legal issues in American history.

Meanwhile, social media users reacted to the Post article, one person writing, “His job, His choice,” while another replied, “Plenty of time to protest now.”

A spokesperson with Universal Music Group told the outlet in a statement they were not allowed to discuss someone’s personnel record, but “what was posted on social media is inaccurate,” adding the company had long supported women’s issues.