Big Dip in Corporate Funding of Pro-Abortion Politicians
BIG DIP IN CORPORATE FUNDING OF PRO-ABORTION POLITICIANS
St. Antoninus Institute
A new St. Antoninus Institute research study indicates that the amount of money given by US corporations to hard-core pro-abortion US senators and congressmen has fallen 30% between 1990 and 1992 which were both political campaign years. 1992 was, in addition, a presidential campaign year and could have been expected to lead to more political funding than 1990 a year when only House and Senate campaigns took place.
The downward trend also extended to the overall number of corporations which made such infamous donations: from 539 to 404, a 25 % drop in number. Furthermore, about half of the corporations (262) which had given PAC money to hard core pro-abortion US legislators in 1990 ceased making such donations in 1992. They were partly offset by 127 new corporations which donated to these politicians when they had not done so in 1990.
Purpose Of Research
The purpose of examining which corporations are donating to hard-core pro-abortion US legislators is to allow pro-lifers to put pressure on these corporations so that they cease doing so.
The purpose to cease funding pro-abortion legislators is not out of any meanness or rancor against politicians with such a warped sense of social good and of the value of human life, it is for the practical purpose of hopefully weakening the campaigns of such pro-abortion legislators so that they are not elected or re-elected.
The purpose of opposing their re-election is to obtain that less abortion laws be voted by the US legislative branch of government. Hopefully also less hard-core pro-abortion legislators would mean that the Judiciary committee would be less likely to include members inclined to approve to the Supreme Court individuals nominated by a President whose sense of justice is so warped as to support the killing of infants in their mothers' womb.
Business Ethics
There is a discipline in the field of management called business ethics which concerns itself to ensure that the impact of corporations on society is ethical and that corporations in their daily operations are conducting themselves ethically.
Unfortunately, this business ethics discipline is quite a religious, with among others, the consequence that it does not indicate any sensibility to the abortion question (even though the abortion question can be defended with non-religious arguments, the fact is that the single most significant factor to determine whether a person is pro-life is that person's church attendance). If corporations involved in business ethics do care about abortions, it is most often than not on the wrong side of the fence, as they would support women issues, which includes in their opinion the right of women to destroy growing life in their womb.
The Saint Antoninus Institute is concerned to promote instead a Christian-based business ethics and is particularly fighting to defend the right to life of the unborn because they are the weakest among us; they are the victims of an holocaust of unprecedented magnitude, and require the most protection.
The Saint Antoninus Institute which is very concerned with Christian morality on money matters also has strongly publicized the fact that the abortion industry is outfinancing the pro-life movement 100 to 1. If there were no money in abortions, the pro-abortion ideology would have a considerably smaller constituency. Establishing and disseminating lists of corporations which support abortions, in one way or another (the Institute is also putting out a Pro-Life Shopping Guide: name of corporations which support pro-abortion organizations such as Planned Parenthood and the brands they are marketing), is therefore in the best tradition of democratic activism for a group holding a value sacred, such as innocent human life, to promote this view by selecting its representatives in the government among those who reflect the same view.
We can say that, on the basis of the results announced above, this approach is working. We can intensify this type of pressure with the joy that we are indeed making a difference.
Methodology
We are utilizing, as a source of information on corporate funding of politicians the National Directory of Corporate Public Affairs. This document, which cannot be judged to be either pro-life or pro-abortion, is not always a full proof source as it does not list all recipients of corporate largesse.
Some entries indeed state something like: gave to 3 democrats and 2 republicans. However, this document is one of the most reliable and convenient for our purpose.
As a source of names of pro-abortion legislators, we utilized information from the March for Life 1993 Annual Report which gives the voting record of all US legislators for a year.
From this information, we established a list of hard-core pro-abortion legislators on the basis of those legislators who voted pro-abortion each time they voted on an abortion question. We believe that it is practical to target such politicians who, their past behavior shows, are reasonably beyond conversion, and should be eliminated from the list of active US legislators.
The legislators with a mixed voting record (and there are quite many of those too) may be expected to be swayed to be slightly more pro-life if we put pressure on them.
The Saint Antoninus Institute had already conducted a study in 1991, utilizing 1990 figures. By comparing the figures of the older study with those of the newer studies, conclusions can be drawn regarding a trend on the matter of corporations which support pro-abortion legislators.
The Corporate View
With our 1991 study we have had many calls from corporations who did not really appreciate appearing on such a list of corporations supporting pro-abortion legislators.
One argument they presented is that they did not support a legislator because of their pro-abortion (or pro-life view for that matter) but because this legislator sits on a House or Senate committee which makes very important laws regarding their business.
To which we answered that we appreciated their argument, but that our purpose is to defend innocent life and we believe it is not too much of an imposition for them to study very hard whom among the legislators they will give money to is pro-life or pro-abortion and to give more money to the pro-life ones than to the pro-abortion ones.
The above argument from corporation seems even weaker when one can see that more than 50 % of the corporations ceased giving to pro-abortion legislators between '90 and '92. There was not a 50% turnover in legislators; and as far as we know 50% of these corporations did not go into other lines of business.
Necessary Vigilance
Our readers may have followed the story when in 1991 AT&T decided to stop funding Planned Parenthood.
We had previously started a boycott against AT&T in order to set an example because that company was the largest on our list of corporations supporting pro-abortion organizations.
Later, when AT&T declared that they would stop funding Planned Parenthood, we did not lift our boycott because the company was still funding the National Organization for Women, who provided and still does, the goon squads which protects the gruesome business of abortion clinics and are stridently in favor of abortion rights. Now the present study indicates that AT&T more than doubled its contribution to hard core-pro-abortion US legislators between 1990 and 1992. AT&T is also the second largest donor corporation to hard-core pro-abortion legislators. Apparently they had not really changed their philosophy on abortion
Full Report Available
We are including in this newsletter the names of the 50 corporations which gave the most to hard-core pro-abortion legislators as well as the names of the 50 legislators which received the most from these corporations.
In our full report: Corporations which support pro-abortion legislators—1993 we give in addition the amounts not only the 100 largest but all corporations which gave to hard-core pro-abortion legislators, with the figures of donations for the previous study (1990).
In this report we also give the name of all the legislators and how much they received. We give the addresses of these 100 corporations for the purpose of writing to them. We also give the names of all the corporations which have ceased giving to pro-abortion politicians.
In addition, we are offering an additional free service to local pro-life organizations: if they give us the name of the senator and congressman in their region we will look up in our computer which companies gave to that particular congressman and senator. The purpose in to treat local matters of election financing locally. The information could be published but it would greatly affect the final size of the overall report.. It is more convenient for us to look into our computer to dig out such information as we have done in the past with the previous report for several local pro-life organizations.
The report Corporations which support pro-abortion legislators—1993 is available from the Saint Antoninus Institute, 4110 Fessenden St. NW, Washington, DC 20016 for $9.95 plus $2.95 shipping and handling.
New Study File 6/1a
St. Antoninus Institute
