Why the C.E.O. Behind Match.com and Tinder Took a Stand on the Texas Abortion Law
As Match.com continues to expand in the U.S., CEO Rob Fischer was in Austin recently to announce that he and his wife, Kate, are going to adopt. They have three children together, and Fischer explained they are hoping to add two more children in the coming weeks.
Along with other companies that have moved into the United States in recent years, Fischer said he and the Match team are hoping to be a model for other Internet companies looking to operate in a country that is more culturally accepting and open to innovation.
On the heels of that, Fischer and his wife have come out strongly in favor of abortion rights. That’s an issue Fischer took on when he was running CitiBank’s American operations. “We’re a liberal institution, but we’re a company which is focused on creating value for our customers and for shareholders,” Fischer said. “We believe that the company should be the most trusted, the most professional, and the most innovative, and it should be able to make a difference in the world.”
In 2014, Fischer announced that he was ending his relationship with CitiBank to “focus on personal investments related to his business”—a statement that Fischer said was intended to represent CitiBank’s full support of his cause.
In addition to being a pro-life activist, Fischer has stated his support for equal marriage rights for gay people and for the legalization of same-sex marriage. After his support for marriage equality was published in the Wall Street Journal, Fischer told the Huffington Post it was “a real momentary fling in the way of my real relationship with my faith.”
But Fischer has gone beyond his religious convictions to take a strong stand on the Texas policy that makes abortion illegal from the beginning in that state.
In an interview on NPR’s Morning Edition, Fischer described the Texas bill passed in 2013 that makes abortion from the moment of conception illegal, with few exceptions. In Texas