WalMart's Ex-Nun

The Washington Post says that former nun Harriet Hentges has been hired by Wal-Mart to work with nonprofit organizations, academic groups and government agencies and to direct aspects of Wal-Mart policies on the environment, health care and labor relations. She comes to Wal-Mart from the United States Institute of Peace, where she led mediation and reconstruction efforts in Iraq and the Balkans. Ms. Hentges is a member of the Council of Foreign Relations.

Between 1958 and 1972, Hentges was a member of the order of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet. Beginning in 1972, Hentges worked for the League of Women Voters (LWV), and served as chief operating officer of this pro-abortion group. For example, in 1972, the Massachusetts LWV's goals supported:

• treating abortion as a medical procedure to be decided upon by a woman and her physician
• public funding for birth control and abortion services for the poor

Other state LWVs also support abortion, including the California LWV.

The National Right to Life Committe has taken on the LWV because it lobbies

against restrictions on abortion - - even partial-birth abortion. On April 3, Ms. Cain [LWV President in 1998] herself signed a LWV letter to all senators, urging them to vote against the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act in the name of 'reproductive choice.'

Wal-Mart has made the wrong choice in selecting Harriet Hentges for this job.