Much of the origin of Spending Spotlight can be traced to the aftermath of the Dobbs decision, as disbelief became outrage and outrage became a call to action for millions of Americans. The latest elections have only heightened our sense of urgency to take actions to ensure and protect reproductive freedom and bodily autonomy no matter where you live.

For the team at Spending Spotlight, that call to action was to start using our purchasing power to drive change – to help ensure we aren’t spending money on companies funding the politicians driving the anti-choice efforts across the country.

Which is why we are so pleased to be rolling out two foundational elements of Spending Spotlight:

Company Recommendations for Reproductive Freedom

Count and Share every Switch you Make

Rather than an exhaustive list of companies and brands, we’ve focused on something closer to the “terrible twenty” – the handful of companies that consistently provide the greatest direct funding to anti-choice legislators at the federal level. We’re not suggesting you need to change all of your spending habits, but rather that you pick one or two and make the change today. Pick one or two products or companies from our list, commit to switching, and share your actions with your friends, family, and followers.

Can it really make a difference???  Absolutely. Pro-choice Americans represent over $11 TRILLION in annual consumer spending, but we rarely aggregate that power to drive change. If only 10% of Americans who support choice switched $100 per month away from the companies consistently providing funding to anti-choice legislators, we could shift nearly $20B in annual sales revenue toward brands NOT working against us, $20B that we could keep out of the coffers of companies financing the work against Reproductive Freedom. Join us in making the switch.

And if the companies and brands on our Reproductive Freedom list look oddly familiar, it is because they are almost identical to the list of top companies funding work to roll back or restrict LGBTQ+ equality.  Yep – our research indicates a consistent set of companies funding work against multiple aspects of bodily autonomy, including both Reproductive Freedom and LGBTQ+ equality. Which means companies and brands like Home Depot, AT&T, Comcast, and Brawny want to have a say in what goes on between a woman and her doctor AND on who you or your loved ones can choose to love. Help us get these companies OUT of our personal choices – make a switch TODAY.

Have Your Switch Counted
To help aggregate the power of our individual decisions to Switch, we’ve added the ability to count the number of people committing to Switch from (or just not buy) each product. You’ll be able to have your “vote” counted, to see how many people have chosen to Switch away from each of the companies on our site, and help us build the evidence base for these companies that continuing to support the most extreme anti-choice legislators is bad for business. So please consider making the Switch* from one or more brands on our list today.

Help Us Build a Movement
After you’ve made your Switch, help us get the word out by Sharing your actions with friends, family, and followers. We’ve provided links and automated posts to make it easy to share each Switch online and via email. If you want to get creative with your posts, we’ve provided additional templates and memes here.  Your help in building our community of people committed to start voting with our dollars, to start evening the playing field by aggregating our purchasing power, is critical to our success. The more we share our actions, the more we normalize taking action, the more we create permission and incentives for others to do the same. So please consider not just Switching, but Sharing your actions as well. 

In the coming months, we’ll be rolling out additional recommendations related to gun violence prevention, voting rights, and other critical issues. Please let us know which issues are most important to you so we can continue to provide relevant, timely information to help you align your spending with your values.  And please consider supporting our continued efforts by donating here. Thank you!!

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*The first time you commit to switching, we’re going to prompt you for an email address to verify you are not a bot.  We will not sell or otherwise use your personal info, as per our privacy policy.