Image: Demonstration, North Carolina legislature, 16 May 2023
As North Carolina’s 12-week abortion ban is due to come into effect on 1 July 2023, an analysis of Internal Revenue Service tax filings carried out by the non-profit Center for Political Accountability (CPA) has shown that several major corporations and banks donated large sums to the Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC) in 2022, which in turn funded groups working to elect anti-abortion state legislators.
For example, the RSLC received $45,000 from Google and $50,000 from Amazon. Others who each contributed tens of thousands of dollars included Comcast, Intuit, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America, the CPA’s analysis shows. The contributions were made in the months after the leaked Supreme Court majority draft statement was published in June 2022, which indicated that the Court would reject Roe v. Wade.
Although these companies did not give their donations directly to North Carolina’s anti-abortion lawmakers, the CPA’s analysis is a case study in how corporate contributions to organisations such as the RSLC can end up being funnelled through a string of companies, eventually ending with an anti-abortion cause, a process that is far from unusual.
SOURCE: Guardian, by Nick Robins-Early, 3 June 2023 + PHOTO by Chris Seward/AP