Are you willing to be inconvenienced?

Instead of giving reasons to be pro-life, I'm going to mention a way to live out being pro-life. First of all is prayer. It seems obvious, but it is entirely understated. It is the best thing we can do to reestablish a culture of life in our society. There are many things we can do like praying in front of an abortion clinic, but I recently came across another way to live out our call to protect and support life. An organization called Life Decisions International researches which companies donate money to Planned Parenthood and produces a boycott list. I have been aware of various boycott lists in the past, but the way that Life Decisions International works is very effective. It does more than put out the list, it contacts the companies and urges them not to support Planned Parenthood. In the last twenty years they have convinced over 250 companies to stop giving donations to Planned Parenthood. The question is are we prepared to make sacrifices, to be inconvenienced, in order to fight the culture of death. There are some big names on the list. On LDI's homepage they give a partial list which includes: Whole Foods Market, Bank of America, Chevron, eBay, Nike, Johnson & Johnson and Sonic. I can tell you it has been very difficult to drive by Sonic on my way home everyday and not stop for an ocean water. However, I am also struggling because National Amusements is on the list and one of the companies they own is CBS. I have been trying to convince myself that I can boycott CBS and still watch How I Met Your Mother when it comes back in September. I know the answer is that I can't, but I don't like it very much.
The LDI list is not free because they spend a lot of time and money making sure it is accurate, but it is definitely worth it. With the list, I have received good resources to keep me up to date on pro-life issues and to help me write letters to the companies and let them know that I won't be using their products and services anymore. They might not care, but it could help them see that donating to a controversial organization isn't worth the hassle. Also they have many free resources on their website.
One of the great things about our society is being able to choose who we patronize and we should use this power ethically. A couple of months ago I heard a lot about boycotting BP because of the way they handled the Gulf oil spill. If we are prepared to take a stand for our environment and our state let's also take a stand against the organization that is by far the largest abortion provider in the world and promotes policies that are harmful not just to women but to men and women of all ages.

"The Pro-Life movement will succeed only to the extent that pro-life people are willing to be inconvenienced." - Douglas R. Scott, Bad Choices: A Look Inside Planned Parenthood