by WorldTribune Staff, April 29, 2019
When confronted with evidence of direct donations to Planned Parenthood, the senior officals at Bank of America went into silent mode, reports say.
Bank of America, which last year announced it would no longer finance manufacturers of “military-style firearms”, maintains that it only donates to the nation’s largest abortion provider via its employee matching grant program.
At Bank of America’s annual meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina on April 24 the Free Enterprise Project (FEP) confronted CEO Brian Moynihan over the bank’s support for Planned Parenthood.
FEP Director Justin Danhof, Esq., showed company executives documentation, reported by abortion industry watchdog group 2nd Vote, of the bank’s repeated sponsorship of Planned Parenthood’s annual New York City gala.
The bank also donates to the Southern Poverty Law Center. In recent months, the SPLC fired its co-founder, saw its president resign, and lost one of its prominent board members in the wake of allegations of racism and sexual harassment.
At the meeting, Danhof stated:
“And let’s not forget the racial elements at play. Planned Parenthood was founded by noted racist Margaret Sanger who wrote, ‘[w]e do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the [N-word] population.’ I’m not going to repeat the word that she said. How’s her organization doing in carrying out that mission? According to one study, Planned Parenthood targets minority communities by placing 79 percent of its abortion clinics within walking distance of densely populated minority communities. This leads to the inevitable result that ‘[e]ven though black Americans make up 13 percent of the U.S. population, 35 percent of the babies killed in abortions are black.’ ”
Danhof then asked: “Can you confirm that Bank of America ONLY funds Planned Parenthood through employee matching? What do you have to say to the many millions of pro-life Americans who are deeply offended by your funding – many of whom are potential Bank of America customers, employees and investors? Finally, what do you have to say to the minority communities who have been insidiously targeted by Planned Parenthood?”
Moynihan said nothing, deferring instead to Andrew Plepler, the company’s Global Head of Environmental, Social & Governance.
“Plepler gave me a canned answer that repeated the half-truth about donating to Planned Parenthood via the company’s matching gift program,” Danhof said. “When I tried to interject that this wasn’t true – and indicated that I had evidence of Bank of America’s direct funding for Planned Parenthood, company officials cut me off. When I interjected that Plepler was lying, Moynihan angrily bellowed that he was telling the truth. Clearly, it’s Moynihan who has an issue with the truth.”
Planned Parenthood listed Bank of America as a “Bronze Sponsor” of its 2018 gala, and as a “corporate sponsor” of its 2017 gala, as catalogued by 2nd Vote.
Major celebrities, including Harvey Weinstein, attended the 2017 gala where twice failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton received the Champion of the Century Award.
In a letter posted by 2nd Vote, Bank of America Charitable Foundation president Kerry Sullivan said that the company does not make “direct grants” to Planned Parenthood.
“Bank of America does not make any direct grants to Planned Parenthood,” said the letter. “As you may know, the Bank of America Charitable Foundation has a Matching Gifts program which matches our employees’ charitable contributions to government recognized 501(c)3 organizations.”
The sponsorship of Planned Parenthood’s New York City gala indicates otherwise, 2nd Vote said.
“Bank of America continues to direct tens of thousands of dollars into Planned Parenthood’s abortion business,” 2nd Vote Executive Director Robert Kuykendall said. “We want investors and customers to understand that their dollars are being used to support an organization that exists primarily to end innocent lives.”
“As we saw earlier this year in New York and Virginia, the abortion lobby is engaged in a nationwide effort to end all limitations on abortion,” continued Kuykendall. “By continuing to fund Planned Parenthood, Bank of America is endorsing a radical agenda and financing the killing of infants up to the moment of birth.”
Following the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018, which left 17 students and staff dead, Bank of America said it would no longer finance manufacturers of “military-style firearms” while demanding clients prohibit gun sales to people under 21.
“We want to contribute in any way we can to reduce these mass shootings,” Anne Finucane, a vice chairman at Bank of America, told Bloomberg at the time. “I mean that’s such a tragedy in the United States, so that’s number one.”
Writing for the Daily Wire on April 25, Paul Bois noted that “While Bank of America likes to flaunt its woke street cred by saying it will no longer finance manufacturers of ‘military-style firearms,’ the financial institution has no problem cozying up to abortion conglomerate Planned Parenthood.”
Bank of America has also directed more than $30,000 to the Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization which, while reportedly having racism problems in its own ranks, accuses conservative and Christian nonprofits of being “hate groups” similar to the Ku Klux Klan.
In 2013, Bank of America gave the SPLC $2,995. Each year through 2016, the company gave the SPLC multiple thousands of dollars: $2,175 in 2014, $4,140 in 2015, and $2,750 in 2016. In 2017, the giving increased to $20,518.
Jeremy Tedesco, an attorney with the Alliance Defending Freedom, told PJ Media: “Today’s SPLC has zero credibility and its ‘making hate pay’ business model should be rejected. Whether or not this opens the SPLC to future lawsuits, it is clear this group has defrauded the public for long enough.”
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