The Supreme Court’s seemingly inevitable decision to overturn abortion rights has thrust the country into further disarray.
For now, Roe v. Wade is still the law of the land (though some states have managed to essentially ban abortion anyway). But all signs suggest we’re being dragged toward a post-Roe world. It’s critical we use the time between now and then to organize and develop a clear understanding of why opponents of reproductive rights succeeded.
Specifically, we know anti-abortion lawmakers and advocacy groups have benefited from a windfall of corporate donations. The attack on abortion rights, much like the attack on voting rights, is at least partly sponsored by some of the largest and most well-known companies in the United States.
Journalist Judd Legum's online newsletter, Popular Information, shined a light last week on multiple corporations that have given money to the Republican State Leadership Committee, a national group focused on getting right-wing politicians elected to office. The organization has backed several lawmakers seeking to ban abortion access, including in Texas and Georgia, according to Legum.
Walmart, Disney and health insurance provider Anthem have all given thousands of dollars in donations to the RSLC, Popular Information reported. Other donors include Uber, T-Mobile, Google, and eBay.
None of the companies responded to Popular Information's request for comment.
It sure seems like we can put the myth of the “liberal” tech sector to bed for good. In 2019, the abortion advocacy group Equity Forward released a report that similarly exposed large companies that have donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the RLSC or lawmakers who pushed for abortion bans.
When they dropped the report, Equity Forward called on the corporations to “divest from the overreaching legislators pushing laws that will rob women of their rights, and instead make comparable donations to organizations supporting women’s rights.”
Reporters and organizers have been assembling lists like these for years, and I suspect they’re going to become increasingly useful for abortion rights advocates looking to hold powerful corporations to account in a potentially post-Roe world.