A pro-life organization that has spent decades working to try to get corporations to stop giving financial donations to the Planned Parenthood abortion business has released a revised listing of companies backing the abortion giant.
Life Decisions International has released a revised edition of "The Boycott List," which identifies corporations that support Planned Parenthood, which does more abortions than any other business in the nation. Kenneth Garvey, the communications director for LDI, says the boycott has been successful over the years.
“As a direct result of the commitment, action and prayers of pro-family people, at least 281 corporations have stopped funding Planned Parenthood,” he said. “It is estimated that the boycott has cost Planned Parenthood more than $40 million since the Corporate Funding Project (CFP) began. This should serve as a testament to those who think it impossible to change corporate behavior.”
Garvey noted that the great success of the Corporate Funding Project is due to the tenacity of pro-life people who “understand the power of the dollar and are willing to be inconvenienced for the sake of preborn children.”
New boycott targets include Mesa Air Group and Trinity Investments, but the main portion of the boycott list is dedicated to corporations that LDI has been targeting for their Planned Parenthood donations for some time.
Some of the companies that occupy a continued place on the LDI boycott list include: Adobe, AOL, Bank of America, Bayer, Chevron, Darden Restaurants (Olive Garden, Red Lobster, etc.), eBay (PayPal, etc.), Laureate Education, Midas, Nationwide (insurance), Nike, Select Comfort (Sleep Number bed), Southwest Airlines (Jet Blue, etc.), Starwood Hotels (Aloft, Element, Four Points, Le Méridien, Sheraton, St. Regis, W, Westin, etc.), Symantec, Wells Fargo, and Whole Foods.
The pro-life group also maintains a list of prominent nonprofit organizations that LDI says “are associated with Planned Parenthood and/or its agenda.” The organizations may not necessarily make donations to the abortion business but may have some sort of relationship with it, such as joint programs, allowing Planned Parenthood leaders access to its members, or in other ways.
That list from LDI includes the following new groups: Comic Relief, Eagles Clubs, Elks Clubs, Elton John AIDS Foundation, and the Red Cross. Continuing members of the list of nonprofits that associate with Planned Parenthood include: AARP, American Cancer Society, Amnesty International, Audubon Society, Boys & Girls Clubs, Camp Fire, Dr. Phil Foundation, Girl Scouts, Girls Inc., Human Rights Watch, Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, Kiwanis Clubs, Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Lions Clubs, March of Dimes, Michael J. Fox Foundation, Muscular Dystrophy Association, Paralyzed Veterans of America, Parkinson’s Disease Foundation, Ronald McDonald House Charities, Rotary Clubs, Salvation Army, Save the Children, Sierra Club, Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, YMCA, and YWCA.
The pro-life group says the boycott list “includes corporations that have donated to Planned Parenthood, at any level, in any amount, within the past five years, but whose officials refuse to say donations will not be made in the future. Some officials claim their respective company no longer supports Planned Parenthood. If officials refuse to say donations will not be made in the future, the company remains on a boycott target until grants to Planned Parenthood have ceased for five years.”
That explains how some pro-life people receive information from corporations saying they do not support Planned Parenthood, but see the name of the company listed in the boycott.
“This is done to prevent corporations from donating five times as much money every five years and claiming for four years that they do not support the pro-abortion groups,” LDI says. “We learned early on that corporate leaders will turn to devious methods to continue supporting Planned Parenthood. For example, one corporation had donated $5,000 to the pro-abortion group every year since 1991. After becoming a boycott target, the corporation donated $25,000 and for four years told consumers they do not support Planned Parenthood. Therefore, do not be surprised if a corporation responds that it is no longer supporting Planned Parenthood.”
All corporations listed have received information about Planned Parenthood, along with a request that it stop its donations, LDI says, which could include cash donations, gifts in-kind and matching gifts. LDI does not track donations made to United Way or other organizations that bundle gifts individuals make through a third party.
“A corporate name is added to The Boycott List only if, after a reasonable amount of time, its leaders refuse to change the philanthropic practice,” LDI says. “A company will be dropped as a boycott target if it stops funding Planned Parenthood for at least five years (automatically) or if a corporate official states that the pro-abortion group will be made ineligible for support in the future (immediate removal from The Boycott List). It is the responsibility of corporate officials to notify LDI if a company qualifies for removal from The Boycott List.”
