We know that when you invest in Adasina strategies, you do so because you want investments that support your social justice values. Adasina strategies are built so that, as social justice issues arise, we can adapt our offering to stay in line with those values. Recently, we’ve seen a challenge to reproductive rights that, while local to Texas, threatens to change the landscape of access to healthcare and reproductive rights nationally. Below is our statement on the issue itself, our plan for addressing these issues within our public equities strategies, and how you can join us in this fight for gender, racial, and economic justice for Texans, and all of us.
-Rachel
Adasina’s Public Statement on the Texas Abortion Ban
The Issue
Adasina Social Capital strongly stands against legislation passed in Texas Senate Bill 8 (SB8) which functionally bans abortion and encourages private citizens to file lawsuits against anyone who performs an abortion after the six-week mark, or anyone who “engages in conduct that aids and abets” abortion. Adasina supports reproductive rights not only because it is an issue of gender justice, but also as an issue of racial and economic justice. As we know, no social issue exists alone in a vacuum but instead exists intersectionally with other social issues. The SB8 law will disproportionately harm those living in more economically challenging environments and communities of color because people in these communities tend to have fewer of the resources required to access an out-of-state abortion.
Adasina’s Response
At Adasina our investment strategy is designed to address intersectional social issues in alignment with ongoing, and new, social justice concerns.
We develop public equity strategies by starting with the Adasina Social Justice Index (JUSTICE). In this index we use 62 different portfolio metrics (or “ways of measuring”) that we call our comprehensive Social Justice Investment Criteria; these metrics address issues at the intersection of racial, gender, economic, and climate justice. We have always included reproductive rights as an investment criteria, resulting in divestment from companies that donate disproportionately to anti-choice politicians, companies that influence policy negatively for women and reproductive freedoms.
Our investment vehicles are available to everyone and represent national and global holdings, thus we use national criteria when assessing politicians, national politics, and corporate donations. However, in the case of SB8, because this regional policy has national implications for issues of social justice, we are taking the guidance of social justice movements seriously and applying additional rigorous scrutiny to the companies in our Public Equities Strategy and the Adasina Social Justice Index.
Our Social Justice Partners, Tara Health Foundation, Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, and UltraViolet, have identified a handful of companies that have made political contributions over $100,000 to sponsors or co-sponsors of SB8. We have evaluated our own index holdings and can share the following results:
- Of the companies identified, The Adasina Social Justice Index does not include AT&T, Charter Communications, Berkshire Hathaway, Exelon, Union Pacific, and Chevron.
- The Adasina Social Justice Index currently includes UnitedHealth Group, which passed prior Adasina screening for reproductive rights based on national political spending. However, UnitedHealth Group was identified as one of the companies that made political contributions to the sponsors of SB8 via their regional political spending. Adasina is leading conversations with UnitedHealth Group with other shareholders and social justice partners, to call for action and meaningful change. Adasina is also considering the exclusion of UnitedHealth Group from the Adasina Social Justice Index.
Join the Movement
In addition to screening our own portfolios for issues related to reproductive rights, we are working in coalition with our Social Justice Partners to mobilize corporate engagement and we have signed to this public investor statement, Don’t Ban Equality in Texas. You can read more about the work of this coalition in this article from The Wall Street Journal. We encourage other values-aligned investors to join us in signing the statement by 4pm ET on Wednesday, September 22nd.