Inquiries into the tax records of two major so-called “free market” organizations linked to the Koch brothers have revealed that the right-wing billionaires have poured millions of dollars into the movement to ban abortions and deny contraceptive access to women, Raw Story reported.
While the Koch brothers have always claimed to be more interested in business policies rather than social issues, RH Reality Check and Politico unveiled their true political agenda: fueling the anti-choice movement.
After some digging into records, correspondent Adele Stan, found that tax documents show the Koch Brothers directed anti-abortion groups to back legislative proposals aimed at exclusively shutting down women’s health clinics and restricting women’s’ access to contraception and abortions.
“There is little doubt that the rash of anti-choice measures that flooded the legislative dockets in state capitols in 2013 was a coordinated effort by anti-choice groups and major right-wing donors lurking anonymously behind the facades of the non-profit “social welfare” organizations unleashed to tear up the political landscape, thanks to the high court’s decision in Citizens United. Helping to drive the right-wing offensive in the states and in Congress is a network of deep-pocketed business titans convened by the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, principals in Koch Industries, the second-largest privately held corporation in the United States,” Stan wrote.
Politico further describes how the Koch network used shell company Freedom Partners, dubbed “Koch Brothers secret bank”, as an outlet for its ideas by awarding more than $236 million in funds to anti-abortion groups and far-right causes since November 2011.
Such groups include the Centre to Protect Patients Rights (CPPR), a group vigorously opposed to both abortion and Obamacare as well as social pressure groups and a think-thank policy group that works closely with the GOP.
This week, at a press conference, Jodi Jacobson, President and Editor-in-Chief of RH Reality Check explained how anti-abortion groups and legislators have orchestrated a concerted effort over time to deny women their reproductive rights, Raw Story reported:
“Over the past ten years, so-called pro-life groups and legislators such as Congressman Paul Ryan have increasingly been involved in efforts to deny women their rights while simultaneously shredding the social safety net on which the most vulnerable in this society depend. It is a marriage of ‘church and commerce’ not previously seen in the United States. Now it is clear that the Koch brothers are pouring money into a policy agenda that recognizes both corporations and fertilized eggs as people, but not the personhood of women,” she said.
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