Montgomery County urging companies to relocate over abortion bans

Montgomery County is urging companies in states with new abortion restrictions to move their headquarters to the county. FOX 5's Melanie Alnwick has the details.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. (FOX 5 DC) - Montgomery County is urging companies in states with new abortion restrictions to move their headquarters to the county.

Montgomery County is facing challenges in bringing new companies to the county due to a complicated zoning system, a high cost of doing business and more.

However, officials see opportunity in their support for abortion rights.

County officials are telling companies in other states where abortion access has been restricted that they can make a bold statement by relocating their headquarters to Montgomery County.

Many of the companies Montgomery County has its eye on are in Texas including Tesla, Match Group, Dell Technologies, AT&T and Hewlett-Packard.

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Officials are also looking at certain healthcare companies such as Humana in Kentucky, HCA Healthcare in Tennessee, Centene Corp in Missouri, McKesson in Texas and Cerner in Missouri.

"Many of these business leaders have expressed publicly opposition to the Supreme Court decision, and they have publicly said they support the right of women to choose their own healthcare decisions, to choose their own future," says Majority Leader of the Maryland House of Delegates Eric Luedtke. "We want to encourage those companies to consider that as well in their business decisions because their employees should have the right to access healthcare, and if the states they're located in right now are not providing access to healthcare, we will."

Officials sent letters to the CEOs of each company that say Montgomery County has an excellent workforce and a strong business climate.

The letters don't offer any specific financial benefits. However, Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich and the state delegates say robust financial incentives are offered by the county and the state if any companies want to answer the call.

"If there's a chance that a company leader is exploring a move out of their state, we want to make sure that they know that Montgomery County is a place they can come to where we do value a woman's right to choose and are generally very welcoming and open to a diverse population," says Elrich.