When BRI funds talk about abortion screens, people assume they mean companies that directly provide abortions. The reality is more complicated. Planned Parenthood is not publicly traded. Most abortion clinics are private. The companies that actually end up on BRI abortion exclusion lists are mostly adjacent to the industry, and figuring out where the lines sit is one of the harder judgment calls in Biblically Responsible Investing.

Here is the actual map of abortion-related public companies in 2026 and how different BRI funds handle them.

The direct players (almost none publicly traded)

Danco Laboratories. Makers of the branded mifepristone (Mifeprex). Private.

GenBioPro. Makers of generic mifepristone. Private.

Planned Parenthood. Nonprofit. Not publicly traded.

National Abortion Federation. Advocacy group. Not a stock.

There are essentially no pure-play abortion provider stocks in public markets. The industry is structured so that the direct operators are either private, nonprofit, or both. BRI funds cannot exclude Danco because they cannot own it in the first place.

This forces the abortion screen to focus on adjacent companies: distributors, pharmacy chains, insurers, and any biotech or pharma with meaningful exposure to the category.

The pharmacy chain question

This is the biggest single category and we have covered it in the CVS post, but it is worth summarizing here.

CVS Health (CVS). Dispenses mifepristone in states where it is legal. Excluded by Inspire, Timothy Plan, Praxis. Usually excluded by Eventide. Sometimes owned by GuideStone depending on the year.

Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA). Same position as CVS. Dispenses mifepristone in legal states. Excluded by most BRI funds. Also has had terrible financial performance, which made exclusion a two-for-one win.

Walmart (WMT). Walmart pharmacies dispense mifepristone. Walmart is a harder call because pharmacy revenue is a small fraction of total Walmart revenue. Inspire excludes WMT. Some other funds weigh the total exposure and do not exclude.

Costco (COST). Costco pharmacies do not dispense mifepristone in most locations and have not made corporate commitments to do so. BRI funds generally do not exclude COST on abortion grounds.

Kroger (KR). Has pharmacies, has not made major commitments to dispensing mifepristone, mostly not flagged for abortion.

The pharmacy chain decision splits the industry into "dispensing" and "not dispensing" camps, and BRI funds weight that choice heavily.

The insurance companies

Health insurers cover abortion services in varying ways depending on state law, employer preferences, and company policy. UnitedHealth (UNH), Elevance Health (ELV), Humana (HUM), and Cigna (CI) all have coverage decisions that affect millions of patients.

BRI funds handle health insurers inconsistently. The exposure is indirect (the insurer is not the provider, it is the reimburser), the coverage varies by plan, and the overall health benefits of the insurance business are substantial. Timothy Plan tends to exclude the large insurers partly for this reason and partly for broader pro-life corporate giving analysis. Eventide has held some insurers because the core business provides value and the abortion exposure is a small fraction. GuideStone has been moderate.

This is another area where methodology matters more than it might seem. Two BRI funds can hold very different insurance positions based on how they weight abortion coverage versus overall healthcare impact.

The big pharma question

Large pharmaceutical companies are involved in reproductive health in multiple ways. Bayer (BAYRY) makes Mirena and Yaz. Pfizer (PFE) has produced various hormonal contraceptives. Merck (MRK) and others have reproductive health products in their portfolios.

These are not direct abortion drugs (mifepristone and misoprostol are different products with different manufacturers). But some BRI funds do extend the abortion screen to include hormonal contraceptives that may have post-fertilization mechanisms, which overlaps with the Plan B debate we covered in the CVS post.

Catholic screens (which are not our primary focus but are worth mentioning) extend further, excluding any company with meaningful hormonal contraceptive revenue. Protestant BRI funds are more split. Most do not exclude Bayer or Pfizer specifically on contraceptive grounds, though some of them exclude these companies for other reasons (supply chain concerns, pricing practices, research involving fetal tissue).

Fetal tissue research

This is a distinct category from abortion drugs or clinic operators. Some biotech research has historically used cell lines derived from fetal tissue from elective abortions decades ago. The use of these cell lines in vaccine development (some COVID-19 vaccines, some older vaccines) created significant debate among Christians about acceptable use of research materials.

For BRI screens, fetal tissue research is usually a separate criterion. Inspire tracks it. Timothy Plan considers it. Eventide's Business 360 framework looks at it as part of the company evaluation. The specific companies flagged change over time as research practices evolve.

Note that most Christian ethicists who have examined the question of fetal cell lines used decades ago have concluded that current use is morally distant enough from the original abortion to permit vaccines and medications for serious conditions. This is a position held by the Vatican and by many Protestant bioethicists. But BRI funds that take a stricter view still screen companies that actively use fetal tissue in current research.

The corporate giving angle

Many BRI funds extend the abortion screen beyond direct business activity to include corporate charitable giving. Companies that donate to Planned Parenthood or NARAL Pro-Choice America get flagged even if their core business has no abortion exposure.

This catches a long list of mega-cap names because corporate foundations give widely and Planned Parenthood has been a common recipient. Starbucks (SBUX), Microsoft (MSFT), Bank of America (BAC), Wells Fargo (WFC), and many others have appeared on "corporate donor" lists at various points.

Inspire tracks this aggressively and publishes lists. Timothy Plan tracks it. Eventide tracks it in a more limited way. GuideStone generally does not let corporate giving alone drive exclusions unless the amounts are material.

The challenge with corporate giving screens is that giving patterns change year to year. A company that gave to Planned Parenthood in 2022 might not have in 2024. BRI funds have to update screens annually, and the exclusion list can shift in ways that feel arbitrary to someone who just wants a stable portfolio.

The biblical framework

Psalm 139:13-16 is the central text. "For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made."

Jeremiah 1:5, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you."

Exodus 21:22-25, which addresses the case of a pregnant woman being struck and having her baby come out. The traditional interpretation in conservative Christian circles is that this passage assigns full human value to the unborn.

Proverbs 6:16-17 includes "hands that shed innocent blood" among things the Lord hates.

These verses together form the BRI position that unborn life has full moral significance and that companies facilitating abortion, even indirectly, are implicated in the outcome.

The counterarguments exist. Some Christians argue that the indirect connection to abortion (dispensing a drug, covering a procedure, giving to a nonprofit) is too distant to implicate ownership. Others argue that the overall good done by pharmacy chains (dispensing life-saving medications) or insurers (paying for healthcare) outweighs the abortion exposure. These are real debates, and thoughtful Christians land in different places.

The practical BRI approach in 2026

If you want to avoid abortion-exposed stocks in your portfolio, here is a practical strategy:

Pick a strict BRI fund (BIBL, TPLC, or similar) that screens for pharmacy mifepristone dispensing and corporate giving. The fund does the work for you.

Avoid the pharmacy chains directly. CVS, WBA, and any pharmacy-heavy retailer are exclusions under strict screens.

Be aware of the biotech and pharma names that are sometimes flagged for research practices or product lines. The specific list changes, so checking Inspire Insight or a similar screening tool before adding a name can save you trouble.

Consider insurers carefully. This is the hardest category to screen cleanly because coverage decisions are plan-level and change constantly.

Do not pretend you can catch every connection. The abortion industry is deeply interconnected with healthcare more broadly, and perfect exclusion would require abandoning the healthcare sector entirely, which is not practical.

Inspire and Timothy Plan both publish updated lists of corporations that have given to Planned Parenthood or to related advocacy groups. These lists are helpful but not definitive. Some companies appear briefly (one-time grant) and then disappear from the list. Others are consistent multi-year donors.

If you want to do your own research, annual reports and 990 filings from nonprofits are public and show corporate donations. The 2Shared Network and Life Decisions International also maintain lists, though with varying methodology.

The takeaway

The abortion screen in BRI is harder than the alcohol or tobacco screen because the industry is structured to avoid public market exposure. What BRI funds end up excluding are adjacent companies: pharmacies, insurers, sometimes biotech, and companies with meaningful corporate giving to advocacy organizations.

If this issue matters to you, use a BRI fund with a strict and well-documented methodology. Read the screens. Check the holdings. Know that perfect exclusion is impossible but meaningful exclusion is achievable.

Proverbs 24:11-12, "Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter. If you say, 'behold, we did not know this,' does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?" This verse gets used a lot in pro-life Christian circles. Applied to investing, it suggests that the excuse "I did not know what my portfolio owned" is not a real excuse. You can find out. BRI funds exist specifically so that finding out and acting on what you find is practical. Use them.

Abortion Industry Stocks: The Pharmacy Chain Dilemma