Continuing our campaign to convince the world’s wealthiest men to stop funding abortion and population control, PRI’s director of governmental affairs Scott Weinberg was in Redmond, Washington, in early November to talk to Bill Gates and his Microsoft shareholders. You will recall that a similar shareholder proposal was made before Mr. Warren Buffett and 10,000 Berkshire-Hathaway shareholders last year in Omaha (see PRI Review, March-April 2002, Volume 12/Number 2). Mr. Buffett has since discontinued corporate charitable contributions.
Our Greatest Resource: People
The tragedy of Bill Gates’ support of abortion and population control is that technology leads to development. Unfortunately, the developing world will grow old before it develops because of population control. Gates, in supporting population control, is out of step with other great minds who have viewed people as humanity’s greatest resource.
The Resolution
The text of the resolution which was read at the shareholders meeting of Microsoft states:
Thomas Jefferson once wrote, “To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves is sinful and tyrannical.”’ Choice is a popular word in our culture. Nobel prize winning economist and long time critic of corporate charitable contributions, Milton Friedman, writes about the importance of choice in his book, Free to Choose. By making charitable contributions at the corporate level, we have usurped the right and duty of individuals to support their favorite charities. We may also be forcing thousands of people to finance causes they may disagree with on a most profound level. For example, abortion rights advocates often use the word choice, without mentioning what the choice is all about, that is, abortion. Today there are a number of prominent charities advocating for abortion and, in at least one case, Planned Parenthood, actually performing abortions. Other charities, oftentimes involved in research for cures of disease, may advocate cloning or the destruction of human embryos for research purposes. These may be more controversial examples, but these illustrate the point. Today, many charities are involved in activities that are divisive and not universally supported. Microsoft employees and shareholders represent a broad range of interests. It is truly impossible to be sensitive to the moral, religious and cultural beliefs of so many people. Rather than compel our shareholders to support potentially controversial charitable groups, we should refrain from giving their money away for them. Let each person choose. The importance of individual choice is perhaps exceeded only by the importance of the life of each individual.
Although the resolution received only 1.98% of the vote, it was an opportunity for us to make the case for people to Bill Gates and his shareholders. PRI will continue to present such resolutions in the future to large corporations which use their dollars to convince families around the world not to have children.
