Now two conservative companies are discussing ways to stop it.
Both Jerry Bowyer, president and CEO of Bowyer Research, and Tim Schwarzenberger, director of corporate engagement at Inspire Investing, spoke on the “Washington Watch” program about their meeting.
They have already submitted a proposal to United Parcel Service (UPS) to review their policy on distribution of abortion drugs. Bowyer offered some specifics.
“A lot of people don't realize this. If you own stock in a company, you actually have the right to place a proposal on the ballot of that company for their annual meeting. People don't know that,” Bowyer said. “People on the Left knew it for a long time and exploited it, and that's part of what happened with corporate America.”
According to Schwarzenberger, Inspired Investing is the largest provider of faith-based exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and they represent investors that are focused on protecting life.
Bowyers explained that Schwarzenberger’s group owns shares in UPS.
“We at Bowyer Research help shareholders, like Inspire, place proposals on the ballots of companies that they're invested in to get those companies out of the political stuff and back to their core business, being focused on that, getting away from risky activity like, for example, the risky activity of shipping abortion drugs across state lines,” Bowyers stated.
As Bowyer says, this is illegal under the Comstock Act, even though the Biden administration didn’t enforce the law. But now, U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche has pledged to take action against mail-in abortion and review the Comstock Act, according to Live Action.
Therefore, Bowyer believes that the UPS board’s breach in fiduciary duty is exposing their shareholders to potential criminal and legal liability.
“Which is the point of the proposal, to enforce fiduciary duty. Whatever you think about moral issues, our job, we help enforce fiduciary duty. Now, that actually happens to overlap often with the moral code and in this particular case, it does,” Bowyer says.
Bowyer also notes that UPS is gaining very little profit while taking such a high risk. Violation of this law is criminal, and the repercussions will not result in just paying a fine. At the same time, shippers that are associated with selling abortion pills receive only minimal revenues.
Schwarzenberger explains that they have worked with many major retailers — Walmart, Costco, Kroger to name a few — about the moral and fiduciary aspects of distributing the pill.
“We're just simply asking the company (UPS) to do an assessment of the legal, the financial and the regulatory risks associated with distributing this pill, and we think that, if they do an honest assessment of that, that would warrant discontinuing shipping the pill,” Schwarzenberger states.
The strategy, he says, begins by having members send letters or sign a petition, asking the company to look at the risks and not sell mifepristone. Furthermore, they just point out the unnecessary financial risks which he believes resonates with these companies.
“We'll still have to continue applying pressure to these companies, but the angle … I think, there's plenty to go around from a moral perspective, from a regulatory perspective, and then from a customer backlash perspective as well,” Schwarzenberger says.
They have effected change at some retailers and are now setting their sights on major shippers, such as UPS and FedEx.
Both Bowyers and Schwarzenberger encourage others to get involved in petitions, to look to Inspired Investing and Bowyer Research as a resource, to speak out in these companies, especially Chrisitan investors, and to become informed on how they’re voting.
