Family Planners Stand Up To Right-Wing Boycott

By Cynthia L. Cooper, Women's eNews. Posted July 18, 2005.

When Planned Parenthood of Waco-Central Texas held its 16th annual "Nobody's Fool" earlier this week, John Pisciotta was there.

In a press conference Pisciotta told reporters that the voluntary sex-education program open to area youth and endorsed by dozens of local businesses and churches was immoral, because it teaches about contraception, sexual issues and sexually transmitted diseases instead of abstinence-only lessons.

"The theme is to expose Planned Parenthood for their agenda of 'anything goes' sexuality, which is quite well-revealed on their Teen Wire Web site," said Pisciotta, co-director of Pro-Life Waco.

Waco's Pisciotta -- who last year instigated a boycott of Girl Scout cookies to force the girls' organization to drop its endorsement of the Planned Parenthood teen-education program -- is part of a concerted push to derail Planned Parenthood, a federation of 122 local and state affiliates that operate over 800 clinics nationwide, providing contraception, gynecological care, and, at some locations, abortion services.

Dating to the 1980s -- when it began with anti-abortion protests at women's health care clinics -- the campaign against Planned Parenthood is now waged on many other fronts as well: legislative attacks on government funding, organized boycotts of sponsors, challenges to corporate supporters and vocal opposition to sex-education programs. While dozens of groups spread and magnify opposition to the 84-year-old Planned Parenthood, two national organizations -- Life Decisions International, and STOPP International -- provide full-time leadership.

Boycott List of Corporate Donors

With an annual budget of approximately $110,000, Douglas R. Scott, Life Decisions' president, and his staff of three, research and publish "The Boycott List" of companies -- usually about 50 or 60 in number -- that donate to Planned Parenthood. Approximately 10,000 copies of the $15.75 list are distributed twice a year, including to 33 anti-abortion organizations that endorse it, ranging from Human Life International to Concerned Women for America, Christian Coalition, Family Research Council, American Family Association and Traditional Values Coalition.

"We're educating people about what companies give to Planned Parenthood so that people who are on our side may choose not to support those companies," said Scott in an interview.

According to a March press release, current boycott targets include Adobe Systems, Bank of America, Johnson and Johnson, Kenneth Cole, Levi Strauss, Nationwide Insurance, Prudential, Unilever, Wachovia, Whole Foods and Walt Disney. Walt Disney is listed because its theme park gave a donation to Planned Parenthood of Greater Orlando to prevent teen pregnancy, according to a Life Decisions newsletter.

Life Decisions -- which Scott describes as being based in northern Virginia -- also introduces resolutions at annual meetings of corporate shareholders designed to end corporate donations to Planned Parenthood. Thomas Strohbar, Life Decisions board chair and the head of Pro Vita Advisors, an anti-choice investment firm in Dayton, Ohio, spearheads this effort, which he claims is going well.

"Quite a few are no longer giving," said Strohbar, citing an American Express decision to stop giving donations to Planned Parenthood, which he said followed closely on the heels of his shareowner proposal in 1999. In a January 2004 press release, Life Decisions claimed similar victories at A.T. and T., General Mills and Target.

The release made special mention of the 2003 decision by Berkshire Hathaway, the investment firm in Omaha made famous by founder Warren Buffet, to end corporate donations to the Buffet Foundation, a generous funder to pro-choice organizations. Scott claims that 116 companies have withdrawn Planned Parenthood support, pulling $35 million in funds away from the organization.

Cynthia L. Cooper is an independent journalist in New York who writes frequently about reproductive health and justice.

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