Bloomberg reports that the recent SEC changes liberalizing shareholder access under Rule 14a-8 are now coming into play in the abortion debate:
Walmart Inc., Lowe’s Cos., and TJX Cos. represent what’s potentially the tip of a burgeoning trend in shareholder activism in this area: All three companies will face votes on proxy proposals in the coming weeks aimed at shaping internal policies related to abortion access. ...
Proposals at Walmart, Lowe’s, and TJX ask the companies to assess the risks they face when abortion access to their employees is restricted—and to report on ways they are mitigating the impacts of the disruption.
Regardless of one's views on abortion, this ought to disturb anyone who thinks that the purpose of business is to make profits. At the moment, the rule is being used by abortion rights activists and any proponent of abortion rights who owns a few thousand dollars worth of stock in a company can use the shareholder proposal rule as a soapbox to get subsidized publicity for their cause. But there is nothing to stop abortion rights opponents from coming at the issue from the other side--assuming, and this is a huge assumption as to which I have serious doubts, that Gary Gensler's SEC uses neutral principles to decide which proposals get included and which get excluded.
I am not making a pro-Roe or an anti-Roe argument (although may view are probably no secret). I am making an anti-shareholder proposal rule argument. The rule functions on a tax on investors to subsidize a soapbox for gadflies and activists.
I used to believe the proposal rule could be fixed. ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/flr/vol85/iss2 I'd still like to see that proposal adopted as a minimum. But I've come to believe the only real solution is repeal.
