The list is long: Amazon, Bank of America, Citigroup, CNN, Dick’s Sporting Goods, JPMorgan Chase, Microsoft, Facebook's parent Meta, Starbucks, Target and Walt Disney are just a few of the mega-companies who fund abortion travel under the guise of "abortion benefits" for their employees.

But there’s been backlash, and rightfully so. Republican House members recently signed an open letter denouncing this behavior in eight major banks.

“Ultimately, by your paying for these [abortion] travel expenses, you are using the money and resources of your investors, your board, and your clientele to allow for abortion procedures to take place when many of these individuals may not wish for their hard-earned dollars to be used for abortions or access to abortions,” the letter states.

They’re right. And if these corporations were sincerely concerned about their pregnant employees, they’d offer the same financial support to women carrying their pregnancies to term. Instead, they’re encouraging women to make the choice that benefits the company bottom line.

Anyone paying attention knows megacorporations’ funding of abortion travel isn’t about compassion or justice. It’s about enthusiastic compliance with the prevailing — and, most importantly, profitable — political trends.

The fact is that virtue signaling sells. People increasingly see consumption as a kind of cultural “vote,” an extension of who they are morally. They boycott companies they disagree with, and buy more from companies they see as politically correct.

An overwhelming majority, or 83%, of millennials say they want companies to align with their own political beliefs. Over half of them say they’ve boycotted a company with which they disagreed. They’re also heavily influenced by social media ads, many of which are political in nature.

In short: The market favors those who are fastest to adopt the prevailing political fad and are the most aggressive about signaling their ideological compliance.

Identity politics has made politics the most important identity you can have, either privately or as a corporation. The majority of Americans now understand themselves in terms of political labels rather than grounding themselves in the enduring social roles and political values that have defined society since its beginning: Motherhood, fatherhood, community leadership, mentorship, church affiliation and standing or works to effect personal or public justice.

But woke corporatism would make us mere consumers. The American family doesn’t matter to Starbucks or JPMorgan. They’re worried about the bottom line in a market chock-full of consumers who’ve lost their ability to think seriously about politics.

And so we are often forced to choose: Either we’re for the progressive agenda, or we’re against it. Politics invades all realms of our lives, and the businesses we rely on for day-to-day needs dictate what we can and cannot believe — or at least what we can say out loud.

Our social media platforms might kick us off for disagreeing with them. Our coffee shop might exile us for holding different political beliefs. Even workplaces have begun proactively enforcing ideological conformity. But we’re not powerless against these activist corporations. They have a lot to gain, or lose, from public policy, which is why electing representatives who will hold them accountable is critical.

Some elected officials already have, as we saw earlier this year when Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and the state legislature pushed back against Florida-based mega-corporation Disney. Similarly, a handful of states are in the process of removing substantial state-level pension funds from activist investment firms based on Wall Street.

Just this month, the Texas Senate Committee on State Affairs, chaired by Bryan Hughes, took a major step toward holding these investment firms accountable by requiring a number of firms to present documents detailing their ESG (environmental, social, and governance) strategies. With public pensions at stake, it’s about time there’s some transparency.

This whole structure of intimidation and enforcement relies on voluntary compliance from well-meaning, law-abiding citizens. If we want corporations to drop the activism act, then we must call them out. So speak up, push back, and vote for candidates this November who will do the same.

If we unify, we can and we will make America a freer and more prosperous nation.
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Timothy Head is executive director of the Faith & Freedom Coalition, an advocacy group for Christian values headquartered in Duluth, Georgia.