(Bloomberg) -- Citigroup Inc. Chief Executive Officer Jane Fraser said her company’s decision to cover travel costs for employees seeking abortion was based on longstanding company policy, and wasn’t intended as a political statement. 

“What we did here was follow our past practices,” Fraser said at the bank’s annual shareholder meeting Tuesday. “We’ve covered reproductive health-care benefits for over 20 years, and our practice has also been to make sure our employees have the same health coverage no matter where in the U.S. they live.” 

In Texas, where Citigroup has more than 8,500 employees, Governor Greg Abbott signed legislation last year that banned abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected, which can occur as early as six weeks into a pregnancy. The move has forced many women seeking abortion services to travel out of state, and Citigroup’s policy aims to reimburse employees for expenses related to those trips.

Republican lawmakers have since called for the U.S. government to cancel contracts with the New York-based lender over the policy. Fraser was responding to an investor at the virtual meeting who complained the policy was a “gross misuse of funds,” though the bank also earned praise from another investor who welcomed the change. 

“We know this is a subject that people feel passionate about,” Fraser said. “This benefit isn’t intended to be a statement about a very sensitive issue.”

Citigroup has already spent years in Texas’s crosshairs. The bank has been seeking to revive its underwriting business in the state after a law barred local governments from working with companies that discriminate against firearm entities. The firm’s municipal-bond underwriting was suspended there for several months.

In all, Citigroup received 13 questions related to the new abortion benefit at the virtual meeting, though a representative for the company only read two of them aloud. 

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