Catholic investors are urging a major shipping company to account for the legal risk of carrying abortion drugs across state lines. <\/p>\n
At FedEx\u2019s annual meeting on Sept. 28, the Diocese of Fort Worth, Texas, sponsored a shareholder proposal asking the company to analyze the regulatory and reputational risks of continuing to ship the abortion pill mifepristone into states where abortion is illegal.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven its prevalence as one of the largest shipping services in the United States, we wanted to highlight the risk that FedEx may be posing for its shareholders if the Comstock Act is enforced and it continues to ship mifepristone, one of the key drugs used in the abortion pill regimen,\u201d Bishop Michael Olson wrote in a letter to other Catholic bishops, asking them to vote for the proposal<\/a> if their dioceses own shares in the company. <\/p>\n Olson told EWTN News he posted the letter on a bishops-only website of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Citing the U.S. bishops\u2019 Socially Responsible Investment Guidelines<\/a>, he called the proposal \u201cpart of the process of exercising stewardship over\u201d the diocese\u2019s public equities and \u201can opportunity to further the culture of life.\u201d<\/p>\n The proposal asked FedEx\u2019s board to report within a year on how it oversees the legal, regulatory, and reputational risks of transporting mail-order abortion drugs. It did not ask the company to stop shipping the drug. The board opposed it. Final votes had not been tallied when the diocese spoke with EWTN News.<\/p>\n The issue stems from the Comstock Act and the Biden Justice Department\u2019s interpretation of it. Passed by Congress in 1873, the law criminalized using the postal system to send obscene, lewd, or indecent materials; information or devices related to contraception; and items or information intended to induce abortion.<\/p>\n More than 20 states restrict or prohibit abortion-inducing drugs within their borders. In December 2022, the Department of Justice under the Biden administration issued a memorandum opinion<\/a> stating that the Comstock Act \u201cdoes not prohibit the mailing of certain drugs that can be used to perform abortions where the sender lacks the intent that the recipient of the drugs will use them unlawfully.\u201d<\/p>\n The Food and Drug Administration, meanwhile, stopped enforcing its in-person dispensing rule for mifepristone in April 2021 for the rest of the COVID emergency, and in December of that same year said it would permanently drop that requirement, allowing the drug to be prescribed and shipped to a patient without an office visit.<\/p>\n \u201cNevertheless, the Comstock Act is still law and could be interpreted and enforced more vigorously by this or a future Administration,\u201d Pia de Solenni, who presented the proposal on the diocese\u2019s behalf, said in a letter that accompanied Olson\u2019s.<\/p>\n In that letter, she told the bishops: \u201cYour institution has a unique opportunity to leverage its ownership of FedEx to ask for a risk analysis that not only protects the value of the company but also disrupts the delivery of a drug regimen that harms women and destroys unborn human life.\u201d She called the proposal a \u201cunique opportunity to slow down the distribution\u201d of abortion drugs.<\/p>\n Olson wrote that \u201cSadly, since the overturning of Roe v. Wade with the Dobbs decision in 2022, abortion rates in the United States have increased about 20%, due largely to the government\u2019s decision to relax the rules around the distribution\u201d of abortion drugs.<\/p>\n De Solenni, who has a doctorate in moral theology and is the former chancellor of the Diocese of Orange, California, is vice president of corporate engagement at IWP Capital, a for-profit firm that does screening, proxy voting, and corporate engagement for institutional investors, consultants, and asset managers.<\/p>\n She said the company \u201conly does corporate engagement with a Christian understanding of human flourishing\u201d based on the bishops\u2019 Socially Responsible Investment Guidelines, first published in 1991, revised in 2003, and updated in 2021.<\/p>\n She told EWTN News that she spoke only for about three minutes during the 20-minute meeting and the company responded for about three minutes.<\/p>\n She said the diocese\u2019s proposal was the only one to which the company responded. \u201cIt is challenging to get a proposal on a ballot in the first place,\u201d she said. And once it is there, \u201cit is very unusual for companies to respond to shareholders. They usually let proposals die.\u201d <\/p>\n She called the effort a \u201cmoral victory.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf Christian institutional investors would show up, we would be changing these companies,\u201d she said. \u201cIf we all voted our proxies, if these companies were hearing from us, they would have different leadership and would make different decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n De Solenni said in a separate engagement with Costco, over whether its stores would carry the abortion pill, the first reason the company gave for not carrying it was that \u201cthey were unsure about the Comstock Act.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOur long-term strategy,\u201d Olson said, is \u201cresponsible stockholding, keeping our investments clean and in line with the Gospel and the integrity of the Church\u2019s teaching.\u201d <\/p>\n He said that Bishop Daniel Thomas of Toledo, Ohio, chairman of the bishops\u2019 Committee on Pro-Life Activities, was supportive of the proposal, which Olson said is \u201cpart of our whole strategy as a diocese to live by Rerum Novarum<\/a>,\u201d Pope Leo XIII\u2019s encyclical published in 1891.<\/p>\n Whatever the final tally, he said the diocese would keep \u201ccontinued vigilance, and the continued exercise of the prophetic voice in these areas that are overlooked and even taken for granted.\u201d As an institutional investor, he said, the diocese is \u201cvery scrupulous about this\u201d and tries to avoid \u201cformal cooperation with evil, or even material cooperation with evil. We certainly check twice.\u201d<\/p>\n