The Same Groups That Helped Overturn Roe and Attack Abortion Pills Are Also Lobbying Against the ER

The Same Groups That Helped Overturn Roe and Attack Abortion Pills Are Also Lobbying Against the ERA
4/11/2023 by Ansev Demirhan
Anti-abortion groups, backed by the funders they keep secret from the public, have been lobbying against the Equal Rights Amendment for the past two years.


Abortion rights demonstrators gather outside the U.S. Supreme Court on May 4, 2022. (Gayatri Malhotra / Unsplash)

Last week, far-right Trump appointee and Texas federal judge Matthew Kacsmaryk suspended the FDA’s approval of mifepristone—a medication used safely for decades by millions to terminate pregnancies. Kacsmaryk’s ruling was bolstered by far-right anti-abortion groups that took aim at abortion pill access for months leading up to his decision. Dark money groups are attacking reproductive rights and ostensibly leaving no stone unturned. From supporting the Supreme Court’s right-wing faction responsible for overturning Roe, to spreading misinformation around medication abortion (which accounted for more than half of all abortions even before the Dobbs decision), anti-abortion groups are fighting to eliminate abortion access on multiple fronts. Their anti-reproductive justice efforts also include lobbying against the Equal Rights Amendment.

In March, on the eve of Women’s History Month, the U.S. Senate held the first committee hearing on the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) since 1984. The hearing focused on a joint resolution filed by Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) that would remove the arbitrary ratification timeline and declare the ERA ratified—making it possible to add the ERA to the U.S. Constitution as a safeguard against sex-based discrimination.The resolution could also help protect abortion access post-Dobbs—which helps explain why anti-abortion groups, backed by the funders they keep secret from the public, have been lobbying against the ERA for the past two years.

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Leonard Leo speaks at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., on April 23, 2019. Leo is a maestro of a network of interlocking nonprofits working on media campaigns and other initiatives to pressure lawmakers and generate public support for conservative judges. (Michael Robinson Chavez / The Washington Post via Getty Images)

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Founded by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, the National Right to Life Committee—the oldest and largest national anti-abortion organization in the U.S.—has written anti-abortion model bills and lobbied against the ERA every quarter of 2021 and 2022. (Stephen Lam / The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)

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Students for Life America (SFLA) is another anti-abortion extremist group that lobbied against the ERA in both 2021 and 2022. SFLA is a 501(c)(3) with a sister “action arm” 501(c)(4) group called Students for Life Action (SFL Action). Both are led by anti-choice extremist Kristan Hawkins, and the co-chairman of the board of Students for Life of America is Leonard Leo. SFLA forms part of Leo’s massive dark money network. Leo recently became the sole operative trust fund trustee from the largest ever donation given—a whopping $1.6 billion from electronics magnate Barre Seid. SFLA and its (c)(4) action arm took in almost $19 million in combined revenue in 2021. SFLA’s extreme anti-abortion stance includes promoting medical misinformation about supposed “abortion pill reversal,” lobbying state legislatures to adopt their “life at conception” model bill (an anti-abortion legislation with no exception for rape or incest), and supports the prosecution of FDA-approved abortion pill providers. Autumn Lindsey Higashi (a SFLA national spokesperson), was also recorded stating she thinks women who have abortions should be prosecuted—no longer a fringe prospect, given that 21 South Carolinian Republican legislators recently signed onto a bill that would make it legal to execute anyone who received an abortion.

Anti-abortion dark money and religious groups, with millions of dollars backing their efforts, are fighting against abortion access on multiple fronts, including through opposing the ERA. From trying to convince people the Dobbs decision “empowers women,” to attacking legislation that could actually empower women, these groups are relentlessly fighting to eliminate the freedom for people to choose their destiny without interference from the state—or from groups trying to impose their religious beliefs about abortion as legally binding restrictions on others.

Editor’s note: True North’s Lisa Graves contributed to this report.

https://msmagazine.com/2023/04/11/anti-abortion-groups-era-equal-rights-amendment/