In a new report and open letter to CEOs, a watchdog group is calling for the US' top companies—many of whom have publicly committed to helping women—to end their support for politicians behind the nation's most restrictive abortion laws.
Released Wednesday, and based on publicly available data, the report details financial support from 66 leading US firms for legislators who have sponsored and passed controversial abortion bans in states like Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, and Missouri.
This includes direct donations to such politicians, and ones made to the Republican State Leadership Committee, which supports state-level election campaigns; according to the report, prepared by the privately funded watchdog group Equity Forward, the firms' donations to those state legislators or to the RSLC in 2017 and 2018 exceeded $3 million.
The report also highlights public commitments toward advancing women—arguably in conflict with such donation patterns—as made by fifteen of those leading companies: AT&T, Boeing, Coca-Cola, Comcast, Delta, General Motors, Johnson & Johnson, Google, Lyft, Mastercard, Microsoft, PepsiCo, Pfizer, Uber, and Walmart.
As part of its new "Defund The Bans" campaign, Equity Forward also sent an open letter to CEOs of such companies, asking them to end their support (direct or indirect) for these "oppressive" and medically risk-inducing laws.
See also: The Endless Cost Of Maligning Abortion
"We understand that at the time you made your donation, you may not have anticipated that your contributions would support such a massive government overreach," the group wrote. "However, knowing now that elevating these elected officials to positions of power resulted in states passing extreme laws that take away women’s rights, we are encouraging you to publicly denounce these donations and dedicate your attention to empowering women instead of robbing them of their rights."
As the Center for Responsive Politics has frequently noted, US corporations are among the largest political donors in the nation, often contributing to both Democratic and Republican funds at the state and federal level. Big firms have also faced increasing pressure to align their activities with the social and ethical values conveyed by their brands, and the trend shows no sign of slowing.
To wit, the report comes on the heels of a widely seen public statement from a group of nearly 200 leading CEOs, calling for companies' promotion of social good rather than just shareholder value.
“Americans deserve an economy that allows each person to succeed through hard work and creativity and to lead a life of meaning and dignity,” the group Business Roundtable wrote in a statement released this week. “We commit to deliver value to all of them, for the future success of our companies, our communities and our country.”
Among the 15 companies profiled in Equity Forward's report for their public commitment to women, and thus their (arguably) counter-intuitive donations, the CEOs of all but five firms—Delta, Google, Uber, Lyft, and Microsoft—are members of Business Roundtable, incidentally.
See also: Over 180 CEOs Speak Out On Abortion: 'Don't Ban Equality'
The donation amounts shown in the new report vary between companies, and don't necessarily represent the firms' total contributions to funds that support abortion-ban proponents, nor do they reflect the firms' donations to other candidates.
Many of the 66 companies listed only gave to the Republican State Leadership Committee, according to the report's findings, while others donated to individual legislators in one or more states. For example, Google reportedly gave $51,057 to RSLC in 2018, while Lyft gave them $12,000 that year, and Uber gave them $25,398; Microsoft chipped in $26,005, and also donated $1000 to one or more legislators in Alabama.
Companies including Boeing, Comcast, Pfizer, and Walmart contributed to the RSLC as well as to individual legislators in multiple states that have passed extremely restrictive abortion laws, thanks to such legislators' efforts.
The Boeing Company is shown as having donated $101,000 to the RSLC in 2018, $6,000 to a specific Alabama politician or politicians in 2017 and 2018, and $500 to a Missouri legislator or legislators in 2018.
The Comcast Financial Agency Corporation is shown as having donated $164,505 in 2018 to the RSLC, while the Comcast Corporation gave $11,000 to the Georgia House Republican Trust, Inc. in 2018, and more than $20,000 to individual politicians in Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, and Missouri in 2017 and 2018.
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In the same time frame, Pfizer contributed more than $10,000 to individual politicians in Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, and Missouri, plus a whopping $195,825 to the RSLC in 2018.
In response to the report, a spokesperson for Pfizer shared the following statement: “The decision to contribute to elected officials is made based on their support of the biopharmaceutical industry and policies that protect innovation incentives and patients’ access to medicines and vaccines. In no way does our support translate into an endorsement of their position on any social issue.”
A spokesperson for Delta commented by email, "Delta gives to both Democrat and Republican organizations at the state level. We do so in order to support aviation-related issues in the interests of our employees and customers in a bi-partisan manner. We respect that there is a diversity of voices in the abortion debate and do not make contributions based on either side of this deeply personal and complex issue. Our CEO recently discussed Delta’s position, which you can see here."
Requests for comment from AT&T, Boeing, Coca-Cola, Comcast, General Motors, Google, Johnson & Johnson, Lyft, Mastercard, PepsiCo, Uber, and Walmart were not returned. Microsoft declined to comment for this article.
According to Equity Forward executive director Michelle Kuppersmith, all such donations are capable of making or breaking state-level elections, whether for a few thousand or tens of thousands of dollars.
"People are probably more familiar with the costs of federal elections—we hear a lot about how the last presidential election cost $1.5 billion—but in state legislative races, even $1000 or less is a significant portion," Kuppersmith explained in a phone interview.
"The costs of these races are in the hundreds of thousands at most, not in the millions, which is typical for US congressional races. So any contributions that firms made directly to state legislators or to a funding committee almost certainly had an outsize impact on those politicians' ability to campaign."
"When you have companies like AT&T, Coca-Cola, and Uber weighing in with their dollars, that goes a long way," she added. "We would really prefer them to use their dollars for good, and not to support politicians who are pushing oppressive, anti-women bans."
Kuppersmith continued, "Even if these companies are making contributions to politicians with a different purpose, effectively the unintended consequence is that they’re supporting politicians whose legislative moves are totally out of step with company shareholders, and their customers. Polling has shown there is not support for these bans."
See also: Trump Expands Abortion 'Gag Rule,' Threatening A Record $8.8 Billion In Global Aid
In an era when seemingly everyone involved in politics, from public servants to reproductive-rights watchdogs, has come to rely on private funding—and when legislation to correct this state of affairs seems a distant goal—it is likely more critical than ever for leading companies, like individual consumers, to utilize their moral compasses on the road ahead (and, of course, any objective data about the issues at hand).
For her part, Kuppersmith said, "I encourage CEOs to think carefully about their future political contributions, as supporting certain types of extreme politicians sends a clear message to their shareholders and customers."
For the rest of us, it also seems an apt time to give special consideration to the products we buy, the politicians we vote for, and the opinions we embrace and may choose to spread.
It's a difficult undertaking, to be sure—and unlike the US' largest companies, whose communication teams often include dedicatedly politics-geared personnel, US individuals may sometimes find it a rather lonely one.
But when the socio-political waters around us are made murky with dark money, cutting dubious ties may be the best way to stay afloat.
