One of the biggest myths in popular culture is that big businesses are conservative. To the contrary, many huge corporations and the biggest law firms have now become huge influencers for progressivism and pressure engines for the political Left, as they have demonstrated in a variety of contexts.
One recent example is the Supreme Court abortion case, Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt, which involved abortionists’ constitutional challenge to two commonsense Texas abortion safety regulations. According to a legal publication, United States Law Week (June 30, 2016, p. 1942),
24 large law firms participated in the case. These are firms that have appeared on Above the Law’s 2016 or 2015 Power 100 Law Firm Rankings. All the firms — including 82 attorneys — represented the law’s challengers [i.e., those attacking the abortion regulations] or amici [friends of the court] supporting the challengers. . . . No large law firm represented Texas or amici supporting Texas.
(Emphasis added.) That’s astounding — and disturbing. Apparently big law culture only tolerates a publicly pro-abortion stance.
The same apparently goes for Big Corporate America. As U.S. Law Week reports (pp. 1940-41):
[A]n amicus brief on behalf of a group of 60 business professionals who opposed the regulations at issue . . . [featured] current or former Fortune 200 executives . . . [including] current and former executives at Microsoft Corp., Google, and Hyatt Hotels [as well as BP America and Nuveen Investments] . . . .
One might have thought that the corporations opposed the Texas law as part of a general corporate antipathy to regulations of any business. That arguably would make some business sense. But no, the rationale in the Brief of Amicus Curiae Business Leaders was more crass: a woman needs ready access to abortion so she can place “her own economic and professional interests as well as those of the business in which she works” above “entry into parenthood.”
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That’s right: abort those babies, the corporations say, so they won’t interfere with your office duties. Pretty crass. Not to mention offensive to hard-working women and mothers here at the ACLJ. Maybe the corporate executives should have just said, “Hey, we’re pro-abortion and we’re powerful, so rule the way we want. We don’t need to bother concocting some kind of business excuse.”
Of course, killing off future clients and customers through abortion is the opposite of sound business strategy. But apparently Big Law and Big Corporations are willing to sacrifice future economic wellbeing for Leftist ideology.
LifeNews Note: Walter Weber is an attorney with ACLJ.
