September, 21 2020, 12:00am EDT

New Corporate Accountability Campaign Puts Six Major Companies On Notice For Anti-Choice Political Giving
The #ReproReceipts Campaign by UltraViolet Highlights Hypocrisy in Corporate America and Calls for Accountability at AT&T, Coca Cola, Disney, Nike, Procter & Gamble and Uber
WASHINGTON
Today, UltraViolet announced a new campaign to hold six corporations accountable for their political giving to anti-choice, anti-women candidates and calls on them to end their support for such politicians entirely and to commit to investing in reproductive health and justice. AT&T, Coca Cola, Disney, Nike, Procter & Gamble and Uber all target female consumers and promote women-friendly work environments, yet they bankroll candidates who actively work against women's rights.
The #ReproReceipts campaign highlights the discrepancy between corporate America's public statements in support of gender equity and their political giving to extreme anti-choice candidates. These contributions not only work against equality for women, but also racial equity and justice. In a year marked by a global pandemic, uprising against racial injustice and a historic election underway, during which each of these companies are showboating their stands on racial and gender equality, we must highlight the hypocrisy of corporate social responsibility posturing and demand companies walk their talk. Companies need to know that they can't have it both ways.
More than 80 percent of millennial consumers believe it is important to buy from companies that align with their values, according to a recent report on consumer behavior. Yet, outside of public statements, buyers often don't know where their frequented brands' values actually lie. #ReproReceipts shines a spotlight that exposes which anti-choice politicians are receiving large sums of money from some of the largest consumer-facing retailers and brands.
"These six companies embody the disconnect between corporate social responsibility efforts that are just PR posturing and actually doing right by their employees and customers. Corporate America is eager to show their support for women and diversity, but they actively work against their statements by supporting and funding anti-women candidates," said Sonja Spoo, Director of Reproductive Rights Campaigns at UltraViolet. "The receipts are clear: these companies continue to give politically in ways that don't align with their value statements. We invite these companies to be leaders by ending their anti-women and anti-equality political contributions."
Supporting anti-choice politicians often is tantamount to endorsing an ideological framework that leans anti-racial justice, anti-science and anti-immigrant. These views have plunged our nation into a political crisis, hampered our response to the pandemic and endangered the lives and well-being of women, especially women of color, Indigenous women and other communities.
UltraViolet's campaign will include ongoing actions to call on these companies to make change, such as:
- Petitions calling for change to UltraViolet's more than 1 million members
- Digital and print ads targeted at each company noting the misalignment of their values and political giving
- Public actions to inform consumers these companies are anti-women
- Polling of consumers to demonstrate political giving matters
- Coordinated social action among UltraViolet's members calling out corporate targets across digital platforms
The correlation between private political giving and the impact it has on gender equity and racial justice is impossible to ignore. Topline findings include:
AT&T
AT&T was named to the Bloomberg Gender Equality Index and came out at the top of DiversityInc.'s 2020 list of top 50 companies for diversity. While it pledges to support the growth of its employees who are people of color and women, including reproductive benefits...
- $1,956,953 (56 percent) of AT&T's total political giving in 2020 was to anti-choice candidates or their associated PACs including Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX), David Perdue (R-OH), John Cornyn (R-TX) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC); Representatives Liz Cheney (R-WY), Kevin Brady (R-TX) and Steve Scalise (R-LA). Vice President Mike Pence's Great America Committee PAC also received support.
- Women only make up 33.2 percent of AT&T's U.S. employees and only two of nine executives at the company.
- People of color are 39.4 percent of AT&T's U.S. management and 44.8 percent of its total U.S. workforce. But as recently as July 2020, AT&T workers in Memphis were protesting the company's commitment to racial equality and treatment of workers.
Coca Cola
As the fifth best company on the Forbes Best Employers for Women 2020, Coca-Cola also placed at the top of Comparably's Best Company for Diversity in 2018 and 96 on the Forbes' Global 2000 in 2020...
- $1,028,838 (59 percent) of Coca Cola's total political giving in 2020 was to anti-choice candidates or their associated PACs such as Senators Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Representatives Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Steve Scalise (R-LA).
- Only three of the top ten company executives are women and people of color make up only four of ten executives.
- Recently retired Executive Vice President Carl Ware warns that Coca-Cola is behind in shepherding women and people of color to top leadership positions.
Disney
Seventy-two percent of Disney's workforce is women and/or people of color and yet...
- $203,350 (51 percent) of Disney's total political giving in 2020 was to anti-choice candidates or their associated PACs including Senators Deb Fischer (R-NE), Marco Rubio (R-TX) and David Perdue (R-GA); Representatives Steve Scalise (R-LA) and Kevin Brady (R-TX). Both former or then (he is in the US Senate now) Governor Rick Scott (R-FL) Vice President Mike Pence's PACs received financial support.
- Only 25 percent of the C-Suite is made up of women.
- Disney was sued in April 2019 for the unequal pay of its female employees.
- On diversity and inclusion, former CEO Bob Iger failed to make good on his promise to make changes in Disney's C-suite before his tenure ended earlier this year.
Nike
Nike may be noted as a 2020 Forbes Best Employees for Women, has promised pay equity, and 49 percent of global employees are women, but...
- $99,000 (27 percent) of Nike's total political giving in 2020 was to anti-choice candidates or their associated PACs including Senators John Thune (R-SD), Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Rob Portman (R-OH) and Representatives Kevin Brady (R-TX) and Greg Walden (R-OR).
- Nike has been called out for its lack of representation in leadership and discrimination against pregnant female athletes.
- The company faced a class-action lawsuit in 2018 on systemic gender pay discrimination and rampant sexual harassment.
Procter & Gamble
P&G is recognized in the Working Mother 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers and Working Mother Best Companies for Multicultural Women, but...
- $144,000 (55 percent) of Procter & Gamble's total political giving in 2020 was to anti-choice candidates or their associated PACs including Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and the Ohio Republican Party.
- These contributions counter the very initiatives and partnerships P&G pushes publicly for gender equality. They also work against the best interests of the six of 13 board members and eight of 14 executive officers who are women.
Uber
The number of female employees at Uber grew 42.3 percent in 2019 and four out of ten board members are now women, however...
- $148,000 (36 percent) of Uber's total political giving in 2020 was to anti-choice candidates or their associated PACs including Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) as well as the Republican Governors Association and Republican State Leadership Committee.
- It is involved in a host of lawsuits for sexual harassment and settled with the EEOC at the end of 2019 for $4.4M and requires monitoring for the next 3 years.
- Uber hired its first-ever diversity and inclusion officer only recently in response to the 2017 "Holder Report" documenting rampant harassment, discrimination, retaliation, and toxic workplace culture for women and racially diverse employees.
UltraViolet is a powerful and rapidly growing community of people mobilized to fight sexism and create a more inclusive world that accurately represents all women, from politics and government to media and pop culture.
LATEST NEWS
'We Will Organize Those People,' Anti-Poverty Crusader William Barber Says of Millions Set to Lose Medicaid
"They will not kill us and our communities without a fight."
Jul 02, 2025
Armed with 51 caskets and a new federal analysis, faith leaders and people who would be directly impacted by U.S. President Donald Trump's so-called Big Beautiful Bill got arrested protesting in Washington, D.C. this week and pledged to organize the millions of Americans set to lose their health insurance under the package.
Citing Capitol Police, The Hill reported Monday that "a total of 38 protestors were arrested, including 24 detained at the intersection of First and East Capitol streets northeast and another 14 arrested in the Capitol Rotunda. Those taken into custody were charged with crowding, obstructing, and incommoding."
The "Moral Monday" action was organized because of the "dangerous and deadly cuts" in the budget reconciliation package, which U.S. Senate Republicans—with help from Vice President JD Vance—sent to the House of Representatives Tuesday and which the lower chamber took up for consideration Wednesday.
According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the megabill would result in an estimated 17 million Americans becoming uninsured over the next decade: 11.8 million due to the Medicaid cuts, 4.2 million people due to expiring Affordable Care Act tax credits, and another 1 million due to other policies.
"This is policy violence. This is policy murder," Bishop William Barber said at Monday's action, which began outside the U.S. Supreme Court followed by a march to the Capitol. "That's why we brought these caskets today—because in the first year of this bill, as it is, the estimates are that 51,000 people will die."
"If you know that, and still pass it, that's not a mistake," added Barber, noting that Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.)—one of three Republican senators who ultimately opposed the bill—had said before the vote that his party was making a mistake on healthcare.
Moral Mondays originated in Tillis' state a dozen years ago, to protest North Carolina Republicans' state-level policymaking, led by Barber, who is not only a bishop but also president of the organization Repairers of the Breach and co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival.
This past Monday, Barber vowed that if federal lawmakers kick millions of Americans off their healthcare with this megabill, "we will organize those people," according to Sarah Anderson of the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS).
In partnership with IPS and the Economic Policy Institute, Repairers of the Breach on Monday published The High Moral Stakes of Budget Reconciliation fact sheet, which examines the version of the budget bill previously passed by the House. The document highlights cuts to health coverage, funding for rural hospitals, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
The fact sheet also points out that while slashing programs for the poor, the bill would give tax breaks to wealthy individuals and corporations, plus billions of dollars to the Pentagon and Trump's mass deportation effort.
"Instead of inflicting policy violence on the most vulnerable, Congress should harness America's abundant wealth to create a moral economy that works for all of us," the publication asserts. "By fairly taxing the wealthy and big corporations, reducing our bloated military budget, and demilitarizing immigration policy, we could free up more than enough public funds to ensure we can all survive and thrive."
"As our country approaches its 250th anniversary," it concludes, "we have no excuse for not investing our national resources in ways that reflect our Constitutional values: to establish justice, domestic tranquility, real security, and the general welfare for all."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Trump Asylum Crackdown Dealt Major Blow in 'Hugely Important' Court Ruling
"Nothing in the Constitution grants the president the sweeping authority asserted," wrote a U.S. district judge.
Jul 02, 2025
President Donald Trump's crackdown on asylum-seekers was dealt a major blow on Wednesday when U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss ruled that the administration had vastly overstepped its legal authority with an executive order issued on the first day of his second term.
Politico reports that Moss found that Trump's January 20 executive order slapping new restrictions on asylum-seekers even if they arrive at proper points of entry exceeded his powers as outlined by the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), which the judge described as containing the "sole and exclusive" procedure for properly deporting undocumented immigrants. In fact, Moss went so far as to say that Trump had established "an alternative immigration system" with his asylum order.
Moss—appointed to the district court in Washington, D.C. by former President Barack Obama—also didn't buy the administration's rationale that such drastic measures were necessary due to the emergency of an "invasion" at the southern border.
"Nothing in the INA or the Constitution grants the president... the sweeping authority asserted in the proclamation and implementing guidance," the judge wrote. "An appeal to necessity cannot fill that void."
Lee Gelernt, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union who argued the case in court, praised the ruling as "a hugely important decision" that will "save the lives of families fleeing grave danger" and "reaffirms that the president cannot ignore the laws Congress has passed and the most basic premise of our country's separation of powers."
The original Trump order not only barred asylum-seekers who showed up at the border outside the proper points of entry, but also mandated that asylum-seekers at the points of entry provide additional documentation beyond what is required by law, including medical histories and information about potential past criminal records.
Moss' order is not going into effect immediately as he is giving the administration two weeks to prepare an appeal.
Keep ReadingShow Less
House Dems Form Procedural 'Conga Line' to Block Medicaid and SNAP Cuts
"We're here to help people, not screw people over!" said Rep. Jim McGovern.
Jul 02, 2025
Democrats in the House of Representatives on Wednesday banded together in an attempt to gum up the works to block House Republicans from passing their massive budget bill that includes historic and devastating cuts to both Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program known as SNAP.
One by one, House Democrats moved in what Punchbowl News reporter Jake Sherman described as a "conga line" to make the exact same request for unanimous consent "to amend the rule to make an order the amendment at the desk that protects against any cuts to Medicaid and SNAP." Each time a Democrat would make the request, Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.), holding the gavel in the chamber, informed them that "the unanimous consent request cannot be entertained."
At one point, Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) grew frustrated with his Republican colleagues for their insistence on passing the budget bill, which he noted would significantly cut taxes for the richest Americans while decimating safety net programs designed to help poor and working class Americans.
"We're here to help people, not screw people over!" McGovern fumed.
As of this writing, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R.La.) remained in his office, according to Punchbowlreporting, an apparent signal that a floor vote for Wednesday remained up in the air.
The United States Senate on Tuesday passed a budget package by the slimmest of margins that the Congressional Budget Office has estimated would slash spending on Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program by more than $1 trillion over a ten-year-period and would slash SNAP spending by more than $250 billion over the same period.
Previous polling has shown that the budget package is broadly unpopular and a new poll from Data for Progress released Wednesday found that the Republican plan grows more unpopular the more voters learn about its provisions. In particular, voters expressed significant concern about the plan's impact on the national debt, cuts to CHIP and Medicaid, and attacks on clean energy programs.
Over 100 @HouseDemocrats lined up to ask for "unanimous consent to amend the rule and make in order the amendment at the desk that protects against any cuts to Medicaid & SNAP" pic.twitter.com/r5ktS9Uj0K
— Jahana Hayes (@RepJahanaHayes) July 2, 2025
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular