FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
December 5, 2019
Contact: press@equityfwd.org
New Digital Library Compiles Information on Groups Influencing 2019 Anti-Abortion Bills
Reproductive Rights Watchdog Group Documents Deep Relationships Among State Elected Officials and Anti-Abortion Lobbyists
NEW YORK – Comprehensive research published today details the depth of conservative organizations’ behind-the-scenes actions that helped fuel this year’s wave of anti-abortion legislation at the state level. The research, now available on Equity Forward’s website, analyzed state public records and discovered coordinated attacks against reproductive rights across the country and identified the top culprits.
Over the last year, Equity Forward filed open records requests in states that introduced abortion bans, including Ohio, Missouri, Arizona, Florida, and Georgia, to determine the insidious connections among extreme anti-abortion organizations, elected officials, and the legislation their cooperation produced.
The records received and analyzed reveal a web of anti-abortion lobbyists that are not just suggesting legislation, but also crafting — down to line edits — every aspect of oppressive laws that will put the health, well-being, and lives of people in their states at risk.
“It comes as no surprise that the anti-abortion lobby has had a hand in anti-abortion legislation, including the wave of state-level bans,” said Mary Alice Carter, Senior Advisor of Equity Forward. “What is eye-opening, however, is the depth of their influence and involvement, and the lengths that they will go to deny access to abortion and strip people of their ability to make their own decisions. These anti-abortion bills don’t just happen. They aren’t proposed because people in the state want them. They happen because extremist anti-abortion groups are pushing for them.”
The digital library of public records empowers communities and journalists alike to investigate elected officials and the anti-abortion organizations they work with to push dangerous public policy.
About Equity Forward: Equity Forward is a watchdog project that seeks to ensure transparency and accountability among anti-reproductive health groups and individuals who are actively working to deny people access to services such as birth control and abortion. We are a staff of researchers, lawyers and communications professionals that uses research to inform reports and campaigns to effectively reduce or eliminate the damaging work of anti-reproductive health forces.
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