As the Supreme Court of the United States prepares a ruling widely anticipated to roll-back the scope of Roe v. Wade, abortion is on the minds of many praying for a pro-life revival. However, few of these pro-life faithful realize that abortion is also in their non-profit endowment, church retirement plan, and seminary scholarship fund.
I was recently presented with the holdings of a $200 million endowment account of a significant ministry that is among the most vocal opponents of abortion in the nation. In that endowment, they owned five companies involved in the abortifacient manufacturing business by way of the Blackrock funds they had invested in.
Data from www.inspireinsight.com identifies Pfizer, Corcept Therapeutics, Perrigo, Teva Pharmaceuticals, and Cooper Companies among the many manufacturers and distributors of abortion drugs which are lynchpins of the global abortion industry.
And so, that most stalwart defender of the unborn is profiting every time Planned Parenthood convinces a young woman to take a pill and end the life of her unborn child.
Still worse, they are taking money that their donors are giving in good faith, and plunging those dollars into the very industry they are seeking to oppose with their philanthropy.
Sadly, this is not an isolated story but rather the norm across the pro-life and related faith-based institutional landscape.
If pro-lifers sincerely want to see an end to abortion in our time, we need to put our money where our mouth is. We need to hold our institutions accountable to keep the dollars that we donate to them out of the abortion industry. Before we donate to our ministries, universities, and seminaries, we need to ask them if their endowment is profiting from and supporting abortion.
Jesus once criticized the religious hypocrites of his day saying they were “like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones” (Matthew 23:27). The portfolios of many pro-life investors share that rebuke today.
We can do better. And we must do better. Lives depend on it.
Robert is a globally recognized authority in the Biblically Responsible Investing (BRI) movement, author of the book "Biblically Responsible Investing: On Wall Street As It Is In Heaven" and a frequent contributor in major media, including Daily Wire, FOX Business, Bloomberg, New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Financial Times.
Robert founded the Inspire Investing group of companies in 2011, and previously worked in the Wells Fargo Investments Private Client division in Carmel, CA, from 2008 to 2011. Robert holds a B.S. degree in Liberal Studies from Excelsior College, a member of the University of the State of New York.
As the Supreme Court of the United States prepares a ruling widely anticipated to roll-back the scope of Roe v. Wade, abortion is on the minds of many praying for a pro-life revival. However, few of these pro-life faithful realize that abortion is also in their non-profit endowment, church retirement plan, and seminary scholarship fund.
I was recently presented with the holdings of a $200 million endowment account of a significant ministry that is among the most vocal opponents of abortion in the nation. In that endowment, they owned five companies involved in the abortifacient manufacturing business by way of the Blackrock funds they had invested in.
Data from www.inspireinsight.com identifies Pfizer, Corcept Therapeutics, Perrigo, Teva Pharmaceuticals, and Cooper Companies among the many manufacturers and distributors of abortion drugs which are lynchpins of the global abortion industry.
And so, that most stalwart defender of the unborn is profiting every time Planned Parenthood convinces a young woman to take a pill and end the life of her unborn child.
Still worse, they are taking money that their donors are giving in good faith, and plunging those dollars into the very industry they are seeking to oppose with their philanthropy.
Sadly, this is not an isolated story but rather the norm across the pro-life and related faith-based institutional landscape.
If pro-lifers sincerely want to see an end to abortion in our time, we need to put our money where our mouth is. We need to hold our institutions accountable to keep the dollars that we donate to them out of the abortion industry. Before we donate to our ministries, universities, and seminaries, we need to ask them if their endowment is profiting from and supporting abortion.
Jesus once criticized the religious hypocrites of his day saying they were “like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones” (Matthew 23:27). The portfolios of many pro-life investors share that rebuke today.
We can do better. And we must do better. Lives depend on it.
