As North Carolina’s 12-week abortion ban is set to go into effect July 1, analysis by the nonprofit Center for Political Accountability (CPA) shows that several large corporations have donated significant sums to a Republican political organization that, in turn, funded task forces to elect anti-abortion state lawmakers.
The Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC) received donations of tens of thousands of dollars each from companies including Comcast, Intuit, Wells Fargo, Amazon, Bank of America and Google last year, according to CPA analysis IRS filings. The contributions were made in the months after Politico published a leaked Supreme Court ruling saying the court would end the right to access abortion nationwide.
Related: North Carolina bans abortion at 12 weeks, overriding Democratic governor’s veto
Google paid $45,000 to the RSLC after the draft ruling leaked, according to the CPA’s review of tax returns. Others contributed even more in the months following the leak, including Amazon ($50,000), Intuit ($100,000), and Comcast ($147,000).
Google, Amazon, Comcast, Wells Fargo and Bank of America did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for Intuit pointed out that the company also donates to Democratic political organizations and that “our financial support does not indicate complete endorsement of every position taken by any policymaker or organization.
“Intuit is non-partisan and works with policymakers and leaders on both sides of the aisle to advocate for our customers,” an Intuit spokesperson said in a statement. “We believe that engagement with policy makers is essential to a strong democracy and that political donations are just one of the many ways Intuit engages on behalf of its customers, employees and the communities it serves. dessert.”
While these companies did not directly donate these large sums to anti-abortion lawmakers in North Carolina, the CPA’s analysis is a case study in how corporate contributions to organizations like the RSLC may end up being channeled into anti-abortion causes. When Republican state lawmakers successfully overturned a Democratic governor’s veto earlier this month to pass the upcoming abortion ban, nine of the lawmakers voting to overturn the veto had received campaign contributions from a group with links with RSLC.
The RSLC, which works to elect Republican lawmakers and promote right-wing policies at the state level, is at the top of a chain of spending and donations that has ultimately been tied to right-wing candidates in North Carolina. This type of spending, which relies on channeling money through various third-party groups of large organizations, is an integral part of modern political campaign finance.
Businesses need to know where their money is going
Bruce Freed of the Center for Political Accountability
In this case, the RSLC gave $5 million to the political organization Good Government Coalition between June and November last year, which in turn gave $6.45 million to the right-wing political group Citizens for a Better North Carolina. Finally, this organization awarded $1 million in independent spending to support nine anti-abortion lawmakers who then voted to override the governor’s veto on the abortion bill.
These donations are proof that the companies are proving complicit in the broader movement to limit abortion rights, says the nonprofit CPA, even as many of these companies publicly tout women’s empowerment. and employee access to health care.
“Companies need to know where their money is going,” said CPA President Bruce Freed. “That should be a lesson – a lesson they should have learned a while ago, but frankly is being driven home right now with what’s going on in North Carolina.”
Several companies, including Intuit and Bank of America, made statements last year offering to cover health costs for employees who had to travel out of state for medical procedures, in some cases explicitly mentioning abortion as example. Google sent an email to employees acknowledging that Roe v Wade had been canceled and informed them of options to move to Google offices in different states.
“Fairness is extremely important to us as a company, and we share our concerns about the impact this decision will have on people’s health, lives and careers,” the email reads.
Companies that have donated to the RSLC are also big donors to Democratic political groups, and tech giants such as Google and Amazon tend to spend millions each year more broadly on lobbying efforts.
The RSLC, whose board members include former lawmakers, governors and White House advisers such as Karl Rove, boasts on its website that it has spent more than $45 million supporting Republican candidates. during the 2021 and 2022 election cycles.
In addition to North Carolina’s abortion ban, South Carolina also passed a bill last week that would criminalize most abortions at six weeks pregnant – usually a period before people know that they are pregnant. A state judge issued a temporary halt to the ban hours after Governor Henry McMaster signed it into law, and it will now be reviewed by the state Supreme Court.
North Carolina’s 12-week abortion ban is set to go into effect July 1, dramatically reducing abortion access as many other southern states have passed near-total bans.