Conservative groups are condemning Walmart’s funding of “woke policies,” warning that “no self-proclaimed conservative official or conservative organization should accept funding from Walmart while it supports the policies of the woke left.”
In the letter, sent Wednesday to Doug McMillon, president and chief executive officer of Walmart, leaders of some of the top conservative groups in the nation slammed news that the nation’s largest retailer has begun paying for employee abortions.
That list of leaders includes CPAC Executive Board Member William L. Walton, Penny Nance, CEO and president of Concerned Woman for America (CWA), former U.S. Senator Jim DeMint, the chairman of the Conservative Partnership Institute, the Heritage Foundation’s President Kevin Roberts, and Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List.
“Surely as board members with a fiduciary responsibility to your shareholders, you must understand the Walmart’s increasingly woke policies are alienating millions of your customers who will take their business elsewhere,” the letter, first obtained by The Daily Wire, warns. “Your founder Sam Walton would be appalled.”
“CPAC and other conservative leaders are changing tactics,” said Matt Schlapp, chairman of CPAC. Once allies, these companies that fund Black Lives Matter and Planned Parenthood are as big an adversary as the woke socialist groups they support.”
“Large publicly held companies need to realize conservative groups and officeholders will no longer do their bidding,” he added. “We are shelving our polite silence and in full-on battle mode. After November, it will get much worse for these woke corporations.”
The letter follows an August 19 memo stating that “effective immediately, the Walmart self-insured healthcare plans will cover abortion when there is a health risk to the mother, rape or incest, ectopic pregnancy, miscarriage or lack of fetal viability.”
The memo appeared to be in response to the June overturn of Roe v. Wade, which sent the power to decide abortion back to the states. Walmart did not respond to The Daily Wire’s requests for comment as to why it is instated this policy.
“As the nation’s largest private employer and grocer, Walmart touches the lives of hundreds of millions of people throughout the freedom-loving world,” the letter said. “Yet, millions of American consumers do not realize that by patronizing Walmart, they are funding woke policies they morally oppose.”
“A perfect example is abortion,” the letter continued. “In a recent revision to its leave policy, Walmart will now provide virtually unrestricted abortion benefits.”
The conservative leaders reminded Walmart that “in prior years, the company policy was to offer benefits related to abortion only in cases ‘when the health of the mother would be in danger if the fetus were carried to term, the fetus could not survive the birthing process, or death would be imminent after birth.’”
“This lawyer-engineered language specifying health in this context means abortion on demand and they know it,” the letter warned. “’Health risks’ unrelated to the baby being carried to term covers mental stress, missing work, or any other reason whatsoever. Walmart is effectively providing funding to their 1.6 million employees and their dependents to cover abortion on demand, including expenditures for the abortion procedure and travel costs and when not available within 100 miles.”
The letter says that “Walmart-supported abortions” will increase in the next few years, meaning that “more babies laid at the altar of ‘choice’ because of” Walmart’s financial contributions.
“It also does not escape our attention that supporting such a heinous policy conveniently keeps women at their Walmart jobs rather than at home caring for themselves and their babies,” the letter adds. “Not only is your pro-abortion policy reprehensible, but your touting of a small increase in adoption benefits as a way to atone for what you know to be an immoral, anti-woman policy is offensive, especially for women. Why was the increase not offered before? Why now? Americans know why.”
The conservative groups also pointed to Walmart’s pricey racial equity campaign and its “effort to punish Republicans for questioning the integrity of the 2020 election.”
“In the past, Walmart has relied on conservative organizations and office holders to further policies that benefited Walmart, its shareholders, and its customers,” the letter continued. “And when anti-capitalist politicians and activists attacked the company for its success and profitability, we stepped up to defend Walmart.”
“We stood by the company because it was generally pro-family and because we embrace free enterprise and believe in the benefits of capitalism,” the conservative leaders said. “We can no longer tolerate your leftist policy agenda – particularly when it facilitates the harming of innocent human life.”
Conservatives will neither condone nor forgive Walmart’s choice, the letter said.
“Conservatives who seek a government that reflects their values should take their business elsewhere,” it added. “And no self-proclaimed conservative official or conservative organization should accept funding from Walmart while it supports the policies of the woke left.”