Resolved clauseResolved: Shareholders request thatAmerican Express Company conduct an evaluation and issue a report within the next year, at reasonable expense and excluding proprietary and confidential information, analyzing the legal, regulatory, political, reputational, and other relevant risks of providing transgender treatments for minors on its healthcare plans,beyond existing minimumlegal requirements
Supporting statementAmerican Express Companyisaleadingemployerwith significant influence over employee health benefits.The scope of these benefits reflects not only cost and quality considerations but also broader societal values. But many companies are allowing political stakeholder groups to dictate healthcare policies that risk dividing employees and create significant financial and legal risk. American Express Companyscored100ontheHumanRightsCampaign’sCorporateEqualityIndex.Toget100,American Express Companyreportedthat it adopted radical adolescent transgender treatments recommended by theWorld Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH),1 a group widely criticized for its ideological bias and lack of scientific rigor.2 These treatments include gender transition surgery (including chest surgeries in adolescence),cross-sex hormone therapy, menstrual suppression,and puberty blockers. But the states,federal government,and culture are quickly shifting in the opposite direction.Twenty-seven states have enacted laws restricting or prohibiting some of these treatments for minors.3 The Supreme Court’s landmark decision in United States v. Skrmetti, which upheldTennessee’s law,will encourage these states to enforce their laws more aggressively,adopt stronger protections, and will allow other states to adopt similar protections.Americans are quickly becoming more supportive of these laws; 56%supporttheselaws,up from46%from2022.4EvenmoreAmericans,68%,opposepubertyblockersfortransgender children ages 10-14.5 Proxy Summary Corporate Governance at American Express Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Executive Audit Committee Matters Compensation Other Shareholder Proposals Stock Ownership Information Information 89 • 2026PROXYSTATEMENT At thefederal level,PresidentTrump signed anexecutive order titled“Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation” which removesfederal support for transgender treatments for minors.6The Department of Health and Human Services also recently removed“sex trait modification procedures”as an essential health benefit under theAffordable CareAct.7 Internationally, countries like the UK, Sweden,and Finland,among others,have scaled back or limited such treatments,citing insufficient evidence on the safety and efficacy of these procedures.8 Continuing to provide these treatments beyond legal minimums and allowing travel benefits for out-of-state care will raise compliance costs,require additional expenditures,and generate significant legal,regulatory, political, and reputational risk. Companiesshouldconsider the cost of taking a divisive stance on this contentious issue.Target,InBev,and Disney,for example, sustained permanent losses in market share for promoting many of these same views through customer merchandising, advertising, and engaging on public policy.9And none of those dealt with a highly regulated area like healthcare,which carries with it manyother risks.As the Goodfor Business Coalition recently stated,companies should not be at the“forefront of political controversies