As Red State‘s Brandon Morse wrote earlier this week, 180 CEOs – including Twitter’s Jack Dorsey and Bloomberg chair Peter Grauer – signed on to a “Don’t Ban Equality” campaign that is designed to put economic pressure on conservative states to stop passing pro-life legislation.

A quick recap, via Fox Business:

Business leaders at nearly 200 companies signed a letter Monday calling abortion bans “bad for business” after several states, including Georgia and Alabama, signed legislation tightening restrictions on the procedure.

The letter, which appeared as a full-page ad in the Monday edition of The New York Times under the titled “Don’t Ban Equality,” Opens a New Window. called on companies to “stand up for reproductive health care.” CEOs from media, fashion, beauty, food and tech companies were among those listed as signatories.

“Restricting access to comprehensive reproductive care, including abortion, threatens the health, independence and economic stability of our employees and customers,” the letter stated. “Simply put, it goes against our values, and is bad for business.”

During an interview with Rule of Law Defense Fund yesterday, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) called out the blatant hypocrisy of some of the CEOs who engage in these type of boycott campaigns. Here’s what he said (transcribed):

“It’s funny to me. Boycotts are one of the favorite tools of the left, including the corporate left. So yesterday, 170 CEOs signed a letter condemning some abortion laws that have been passed in a number of states. We’ve seen in the past, efforts against North Carolina led by the corporate community.

It’s funny. These companies have no problem — these same voices — have no problem leading boycott efforts as a result of laws passed by the democratically-elected legislatures of American U.S. states. On the other hand, they are the first ones to come up here and argue ‘oh, we can’t cut off economic relations with fill-in-the-blank authoritarian country, China, Saudi Arabia, whoever it might be.'”

Continuing to mimic these CEOs, Rubio continued: ‘I don’t care that they have a camp with a million Uighur Muslims interned and forced labor and quote-unquote re-education. We want to do business there. I don’t care that women are not allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia. We want to do business there.’

“So these same companies who have no problem being the voice of moral authority when it comes to imposing boycotts as a result of laws passed by the democratically-elected legislatures of American states, they have no problem being the voice of open and free economic engagement with authoritarian countries that have real, documented, persistent human rights violations.”

Watch video of his remarks below:

The Corporate Left uses boycotts as tools to be the voice of moral authority here in the US. Yet these same companies ALSO favor of open, free economic engagement with authoritarian countries that have real, documented, persistent human rights violations.

Stunning hypocrisy. pic.twitter.com/Ce4SzwzmHZ

— Senator Rubio Press (@SenRubioPress) June 11, 2019

Rubio is 100% correct here, and his mentioning of North Carolina hit home to me, as a lifelong resident of the state and someone who was right in the thick pushing back against the activist/corporate left’s relentless econmic boycott campaign over the HB2 “bathroom bill” in 2016.

I pointed out the virtue-signaling hypocrisy of the NBA, who threatened an All-Star Game boycott of the state at the time, as well as the double standards of the activist left:

The NBA is content with punishing North Carolina for a bill protecting women and children while it rakes in billions from expanding operations in countries with brutal human rights records against men, women, and children. The NBA’s sudden concern is not genuine; it’s a product of pressure by the left-wing outrage machine.

Then, the radical activist left in North Carolina, who normally are absolute purists on issues related to “fair and living wages” and “safe spaces for women,” applaud the NBA for threatening the economic livelihoods of their fellow residents.

Go figure.

Some things never change.

————————
—Based in North Carolina, Sister Toldjah is a former liberal and a 15+ year veteran of blogging with an emphasis on media bias, social issues, and the culture wars. Read her Red State archives here. Connect with her on Twitter.–