The
Feminist Majority Report, Right-Wing Religious Investment Funds Scare
Pharmaceuticals Away from Contraceptive Research reviews the right-wing
religious investment funds that are the latest strategy in the right-wing
attempt to scare pharmaceutical companies away from mifepristone (also known as
RU 486) and contraceptive research. The report summarizes the activities of the
Catholic Values Investment Fund, the Timothy Fund, and the Aquinas Funds, a
Dallas-based Catholic mutual fund founded in 1994 that has claimed credit for
stopping major pharmaceuticals from bringing mifepristone to the U.S.. As Eleanor Smeal, President of the
Feminist Majority Foundation reveals, “Of
the nine major pharmaceuticals that were involved in contraceptive research and
development in the 1960s and 1970s, only two remain . . .” From: The Feminist Majority Report - Spring 1998
Right-Wing Religious Investment Funds Scare Pharmaceuticals Away from Contraceptive Research
New right-wing religious investment funds are the
latest strategy in the right-wing attempt to scare corporations away from
mifepristone (also known as RU 486) and contraceptive research.
One of the right-wing investment funds -- Aquinas Funds, a Dallas-based Catholic mutual
fund founded in 1994 -- has claimed
credit for stopping major pharmaceuticals from bringing mifepristone to the
U.S. The Aquinas Fund is an arm of the Catholic Foundation and uses the
investment guidelines of the Catholic Church, including opposition to abortion
and contraception.
An Aquinas Funds shareholder brochure states that
“the drug companies in our
portfolios will not be involved in the production or distribution of RU 486.” In media interviews, Aquinas CEO Frank Rauscher
said that he obtained written pledges from six major pharmaceutical companies
promising that they would not produce or distribute RU 486. Despite repeated
calls, these pharmaceutical companies would neither confirm nor deny that they
had issued such letters, but there is no question that anti abortion forces
have put pressure on the pharmaceutical industry.
The Aquinas portfolio includes American Home
Products, Pharmacia & Upjohn, and until last June, Johnson& Johnson -- some of the largest drug companies in the world.
Rauscher also claims the mutual fund persuaded
Chase Manhattan Bank to stop contributing to Planned Parenthood. Aquinas has
said they hope to use their leverage to pressure American Home Products, which
sells produces birth control pills, and Pharmacia & UpJohn, which produces
a contraceptive injection, to minimize their involvement with reproductive
health products.
| Aquinas Funds has claimed credit for stopping major pharmaceuticals from bringing mifepristone to the U.S.” |
“Pharmaceutical companies essentially have
abandoned the field of contraceptive research and development,” said Eleanor Smeal, President of the
Feminist Majority Foundation. “Of
the nine major pharmaceuticals that were involved in contraceptive research and
development in the 1960s and 1970s, only two remain -- Ortho of Johnson & Johnson and Wyeth-Ayerst
of American Home. And both of these companies have refused to have anything to
do with mifepristone or with similar compounds.”
Other similar funds have emerged in the last few
years: the Catholic Values Investment Fund and the Timothy Fund (a
fundamentalist Christian mutual fund).
A spokesman for the Catholic Values Investment
Trust said that the fund would not invest in companies that manufacture
contraceptives or abortion equipment. The Catholic Values Investment Trust
removed the drugstore Rite Aid from its investments because the store sells
contraceptives.
The Timothy Plan also opposes companies that make
contraceptives and abortion products, including Pharmacia & Upjohn,
Bristol-Myers Squibb (manufacturer of birth-control pills), companies that
contribute to Planned Parenthood, and even insurance companies that cover
abortion.
Research by the Birth Control Trust in England
reveals that financial institutions in Great Britain, including Europe’s largest mutual life insurer Standard Life, are
being pressured by an anti-abortion financial firm to with draw investments in
companies involved in providing abortions, Ethical Financial, the anti-abortion
financial adviser, claims that they have persuaded another financial company,
Family Assurance, to boycott investments in private hospitals and manufacturers
of equipment involved in abortions, and in pharmaceutical firms that produce
the “morning after” pill or conduct research on embryos.
To send Take Action letters to two major U.S.
pharmaceuticals urging them not to give in to right-wing pressure, see our Web
site: http://www.feminist.org.
Clinics Offer Abortion Pill
Eleven clinics, hospitals and doctor’s offices in New York, Montana, California,
Maryland, Georgia, Nebraska, Vermont, and Washington state have access to a
U.S.-made clone of RU 486, the “French
abortion pill,” through an
FDA-approved research project. Abortion Rights Mobilization, a nonprofit
organization which is conducting the mifepristone trials through which the drug
is available, released names and phone numbers of all the clinics and hospitals
to family planning and women’s
rights groups. For a list of clinics see the Feminist Majority Foundation web
site: http://www.feminist.org/rrights/mifeptrials.html.
Sixteen hundred women have thus far been treated
in the trials. ARM plans to treat at least 10,000 women. Preliminary results of
a study based on the ARM trials found a high success rate using 1/3 the dosage
of RU 486 com pared to the dosage used in European clinics and hospitals.
From:
The Feminist Majority Report
Page 4
Spring 1998
