Documentation released this week at Bank of America’s annual shareholder meeting revealed the bank’s contributions to abortion vendor Planned Parenthood amounted to direct support and not just a matching gift program as the corporation had allegedly informed its customers.

Using evidence collected by corporate and charity watchdog 2nd Vote, National Center for Public Policy Research’s Free Enterprise Project (FEP) confronted Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan Wednesday at the corporation’s annual meeting of investors in Charlotte, North Carolina, over the bank’s support for Planned Parenthood, America’s largest abortion provider.

At the meeting, FEP director and attorney Justin Danhof, also a Bank of America shareholder, presented evidence showing the bank listed as a direct “corporate sponsor” of the abortion chain’s fundraising galas in 2017 and 2018.

“Bank of America is one of 38 companies that contributes funds to Planned Parenthood,” Danhof said at the investors’ meeting, observing the abortion industry giant was founded by eugenicist Margaret Sanger.

“According to one study, Planned Parenthood targets minority communities by placing 79 percent of its abortion clinics within walking distance of densely populated minority communities,” Danhof said. “This leads to the inevitable result that “[e]ven though black Americans make up 13 percent of the U.S. population, 35 percent of the babies killed in abortions are black.”

“Can you confirm that Bank of America ONLY funds Planned Parenthood through employee matching?” he asked Moynihan. “What do you have to say to the many millions of pro-life Americans who are deeply offended by your funding – many of whom are potential Bank of America customers, employees and investors?”

Danhof said Moynihan did not respond but deferred to Andrew Plepler, Bank of America’s Global Head of Environmental, Social & Governance.

“Plepler gave me a canned answer that repeated the half-truth about donating to Planned Parenthood via the company’s matching gift program,” Danhof said. “When I tried to interject that this wasn’t true – and indicated that I had evidence of Bank of America’s direct funding for Planned Parenthood, company officials cut me off.”

“When I spoke with Mr. Plepler following the meeting, I showed him the evidence from 2nd Vote, and he said he would try and verify what funding the bank has actually provided to Planned Parenthood in recent years,” Danhof continued.

In a letter that 2nd Vote obtained, the president of the Bank of America Charitable Foundation reportedly responded to a customer concerned with the bank’s support for the abortion provider.

“Bank of America does not make any direct grants to Planned Parenthood,” was the response, though 2nd Vote found archived webpages for Planned Parenthood showing the bank was listed as a “corporate sponsor” for an event in May 2017, which was billed as a “once-in-a-lifetime gala to benefit Planned Parenthood Federation of America and Planned Parenthood of New York City.”

The financial giant was then also listed as a “bronze sponsor” for the organization’s “Spring Into Action Gala” on May 1, 2018.

According to documentation discovered by 2nd Vote, Bank of America told its investors contributions to the abortion vendor were provided solely through an employee matching gifts program.

“If Bank of America wants to spend its investors’ money to fund the abortion industrial complex, it has that right,” Danhof said in a press statement. “However, the bank’s direct sponsorship of Planned Parenthood is highly offensive to tens of millions of pro-life Americans, many of whom may choose to boycott the company’s services.”

Robert Kuykendall, 2nd Vote executive director said, “Investors and account holders deserve to know if the company is using their investments and corporate profits to directly fund abortion.”

“For every child who loses his or her life in a Planned Parenthood clinic, Bank of America loses a potential account holder,” he added. “Bank of America should end all financial support for Planned Parenthood and come clean to its shareholders and customers.”