Billionaires funding politicians and groups pushing for bounties to abortion vigilantes? Follow the money to to see how billionaires get to impose their values on the rest of us.
"Farris and Daniel Wilks, billionaire brothers who made their money from an oil company and contributed a combined $1.5 million to the Texas Right to Life PAC. They are generous donors to right-wing politicians and Republican Party committees, the Religious Right groups and to the Koch brothers' political network. " - Open Secrets
"That's a fine $10,000 payday. I was cranky, so I filed a lawsuit.," said "Oscar Stilley, a 58-year-old Arkansas man decided to sue Dr. Alan Braid, the San Antonio doctor. - Daily Beast. "The judge called Stilley an "unrepentant tax cheat" and "thief" who used his law license as an "instrument of fraud and a license to steal." - Tulsa World
"Texas’s new law makes no exceptions for rape or incest. For me, it is 1972 all over again. And that is why, I provided an abortion to a woman... I acted because I had a duty of care to this patient, as I do for all patients, and because she has a fundamental right to receive this care.", said Dr. Alan Braid - WaPo
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Dark money funding the abortion ban
"The billionaire Wilks brothers, who have become generous donors to right-wing politicians and Republican Party committees. While both Farris and Dan have given to conservative groups and candidates, it is older brother Farris whose foundation has become a source of massive donations to Religious Right groups and to the Koch brothers' political network. Farris also funds a network of "pregnancy centers" that refuse, on principle, to talk to single women about contraception. Married women need to check with their husband and pastor." - Prospect
Texas S.B. 8 denies women healthcare
"Texas’s new law makes no exceptions for rape or incest. Even before S.B. 8, Texas had some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country. That includes a 24-hour waiting period, meaning a woman has to make at least two visits to our clinic. Ultrasound imaging is mandatory. Parental consent is required for minors, unless they obtain court approval. And yet, despite the restrictions, we were always able to continue providing compassionate care up to the legal limit of 22 weeks. It meant hiring more staff, everything took longer, but we managed. Until Sept. 1.
Since then, most of our patients have been too far along in their pregnancies to qualify for abortion care. I tell them that we can offer services only if we cannot see the presence of cardiac activity on an ultrasound, which usually occurs at about six weeks, before most people know they are pregnant. The tension is unbearable as they lie there, waiting to hear their fate." - WaPo
