The Pizza Connection

Reprinted with permission from "Ms.", March 1989:

Is a slice of the Domino's pie going to fund anti-abortion activities? Seems that way. Appearing on a telethon last fall, Tom Monaghan, president and founder of Domino's Pizza, of Ann Arbor, Michigan, donated $50,000 to Michigan "Right to Life's" "Committee To End Tax-Funded Abortions." Their November referendum passed; Medicaid-funded abortions are now barred in the state.

The donation from Monaghan, a devout Catholic, was "a personal contribution," Domino's spokesman Ron Hingst said. But searching through state records, Zipper also uncovered a $10,000 gift to the committee from Domino's Farms Corporation, a Monaghan-owned company that, though separate from Domino's Pizza Inc., "obviously" makes its money from pizza sales, Hingst said.

Domino's is also embroiled in a battle with the Ann Arbor chapter of NOW. Last May, the group alleges, Domino's Farms canceled a NOW event at its publicly available facility after learning it would raise pro-choice monies. (A Right to Life fund-raiser had already been held there.) NOW filed a civil rights complaint, charging religious discrimination; the case is pending.