Corporations race to distance themselves from Planned Parenthood in the wake of erroneous funding claims

A debacle broke out this week after the Daily Signal reported on the 41 enormous corporations and organizations which purportedly donate “directly to Planned Parenthood.”  The information was gleaned from the conservative organization 2^nd Vote, which got their information directly from a list of corporate donors on Planned Parenthood’s own website.  Here is 2^nd Vote’s page listing 38 companies that give “directly” to PP, along with many others they claim are connected to PP via “3^rd party groups that fund Planned Parenthood.” 

The original list from which 2^nd Vote gleaned their information was quickly removed from Planned Parenthood’s site when the abortion giant caught wind of the controversy – which likely occurred when corporations began contacting Planned Parenthood insisting that their erroneously-published names be removed from the list.  Now, companies are speaking out to clarify in no uncertain terms that they are not affiliated with the scandalous Planned Parenthood abortion business.  Other companies, which have confirmed that they do match contributions to PP with employees or make small grants to the organization have all, nevertheless, employed language which keeps the controversial abortion conglomerate at arm’s length in spite of connections that do exist.

Companies including CocaCola, Ford, Xerox, and the American Cancer Society have spoken up in a follow-up piece by the Daily Signal that attempts to clean up the mess made by their listing 41 PP donors without cross-checking that information with the companies themselves.  The Daily Signal reports that at least 4 of the names listed have no current association with Planned Parenthood whatsoever – not even employee gift matching:

A representative from Coca-Cola confirmed for The Daily Signal the company does not contribute to Planned Parenthood, nor does it match employee contributions to the organization.

When told that its named appeared on Planned Parenthood’s website, the Coca-Cola representative said, “We’ll ask them to correct the information.”

Other companies voiced similar concerns about Planned Parenthood’s donor list.

“We are making sure that Ford Motor Company is not listed as a Planned Parenthood contributor on their website,” a representative from Ford told The Daily Signal.

“In addition, we do not offer an employee match for charitable contributions,” the Ford representative said.  It has been at least 10 years since Ford stopped matching employee gift contributions, the representative added.

Even organizations like the March of Dimes – whose anti-Life leanings run deep– insisted that their only ties with Planned Parenthood are at the local level, and are few and far between.  The group took to Facebook to “set the record straight”:

To set the record straight, the March of Dimes does not have a relationship with Planned Parenthood.  Additionally, the March of Dimes does not promote or fund abortion services, nor may foundation funds be used for directive counseling regarding abortion.  Violation of this policy would be grounds for immediate cancellation of a grant or cooperative agreement.  Since 2007, five local March of Dimes chapters have given local grants to Planned Parenthood exclusively for prenatal education.  In these communities, these are the only such services available to improve the health of low-income women and reduce the risks of birth defects, low birthweight, and prematurity in their babies.

Currently, of the 41 companies originally listed, 4 have corrected the report to say that they do not currently give to PP in any way; 10 have clarified that their giving is relegated to employee gift-matching (with Morgan Stanley including small grants in addition); 1 is only engaged in small grants (March of Dimes); and 26 have not responded to the Daily Signal’s request for comment.

The takeaway: No one wants to be caught in bed with the body-parts-harvesting lawbreakers at Planned Parenthood anymore.  States are defunding Planned Parenthood, the federal government is investigating Planned Parenthood, and corporations are distancing themselves from Planned Parenthood.  The only people who are standing with the embattled abortion giant these days are the exact people we would expect to do so: firmly-established abortion activists.  Also: taking Planned Parenthood at their word (i.e., publishing a list they claim is true without cross-checking) is bad policy in light of the organization’s ineptitude at truth-telling.