Target Stores and Planned Parenthood

Published January 1998

Target stores have been attempting to cooperate with area churches by making their store credit cards available through them. In return the churches receive a 1% rebate. This should be alarming to churches and local pro-life organizations.

For the past 20 years, Target’’s parent company, Dayton Hudson, has been a generous and aggressive supporter of Planned Parenthood. However, when asked about support for this leading pro-abortion organization, they state that a recent $18,000 contribution was a “one-year” grant, implying that their support was only a one-time gift. They neglect to tell callers that the “one-year” grant is routinely renewed each year. Further, they say that the Dayton Hudson Foundation is separate from the Dayton Hudson Corporation and that the corporation has no control over the Foundation. This is untrue. The Dayton Hudson Corporation directly funds the Foundation and has the ability to influence grants.

This is unlike the Ford Family Foundation which has a history of funding Planned Parenthood. It is not funded or controlled by the Ford Corporation. Ford family members fund the Foundation and decide where the money will be given. The same can be said for Bill Gates, the computer software multi-billionaire who has generously supported Planned Parenthood in the past. Microsoft Corporation neither funds nor authorizes grants to this leading pro-abortion organization. Therefore, no pro-life boycott has been called on either of these two corporations.

The Dayton Hudson Foundation’s feminist, pro-abortion roots are well documented. Cynthia Mayeda, former chairman of its Foundation, was described by the Minneapolis Star Tribune in September 1990 this way. “On her office wall hangs a photo of Cynthia Mayeda standing on a chair in the middle of a crowded convention floor, her mouth open in protest, her fists holding a banner reading: `EQUAL RIGHTS/CIVIL RIGHTS – ERA’”. The Tribune referred to Mayeda as a “self-described feminist.”

The Tribune article also described Ann H. Barkelew, Vice President for Public Relations at Dayton Hudson, as “a financial contributor to Planned Parenthood and the Women’s Campaign Fund, which supports abortion-rights candidates.”

Due to protests from the pro-life community, Dayton Hudson announced that they would no longer fund Planned Parenthood. However, almost immediately, they reversed this decision, caving in to radical pro-abortion extremists. During Dayton Hudson’s initial reversal, the Tribune stated that “Barkelew also is active in the Minnesota Women’s Consortium, a coalition of 170 activist groups that staged a demonstration against Dayton Hudson until it resumed funding Planned Parenthood.”

Pro-lifers have zeroed in on Target stores because of their status as the “cash cow” of the Dayton Hudson Corporation. The defenders of unborn babies want to demonstrate to corporate America that it is not financially lucrative to support an affiliate of Planned Parenthood, the largest single abortion provider in the nation, while attempting to deceive those who disagree with the killing of unborn children. Therefore, we encourage all pro-lifers to support the boycott of Target stores.

Call Deb Gilbert at Target Stores Guest Relations Department, (612) 304-4810. Then kindly tell her that you will not shop at Target stores because of their grants to Planned Parenthood. Or write to them at: Target Stores, Attn. Guest Relations, CC-08C 3380 6th St., Minneapolis, MN 55440. 

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