Part of my job as a corporate engagement strategist is to read what’s on corporate ballots at American public companies. Reading these agendas reveals a stunning amount of blatantly anti-business proposals from corporate activist groups, from pushing Lockheed Martin to divest from Israel to pressuring Starbucks to make oat milk free to fight racism (yes, that’s real). But the other day, I came across perhaps one of the worst examples of corporate activism that’s not only anti-business, but arguably directly at odds with values of the organization pushing the proposal. The proposal? Supporting employee access to abortion. The proponent? The largest Presbyterian denomination in America.
The Presbyterian Church U.S.A. (PCUSA) is one of the biggest Presbyterian denominations in America, with more than a million members in its ranks despite losing almost 50,000 members in 2024 alone. Earlier this year, the denomination shuttered its missionary program after almost two centuries, citing declining giving and church membership. But, while the international mission field may be a lost cause for PCUSA, financial struggles haven’t stopped them from pursuing other goals like making sure American employees can kill their unborn children. The PCUSA recently sponsored a shareholder proposal for supermarket chain Albertsons, urging the company to report on the effects of state-level restrictions on abortion in the wake of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, overturning Roe v. Wade. Even though the proposal came from an organization representing thousands of Christians, it’s a masterclass in pro-abortion virtue signaling. “[Employees] who cannot access abortion when needed are three times more likely to leave the workforce, and four times as likely to slip into poverty.” Conveniently, the stats on unborn children go unmentioned.
.png)
.png)
