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Texas abortion bounty: Follow the money funding the new law

DemLabs blog

September 24, 2021

Texas S.B. 8 provides tax payer funded bounties to abortion bounty vigilantes

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

Click on this power map for details.

Texas S.B.8 gives bounties to abortion ban vigilantes.

This power map can be freely shared with this link https://embed.kumu.io/35344d8ab94ee9e0d98bdd8e2a2f0da4 or embedded in a website with this line of code:
< iframe src="https://embed.kumu.io/35344d8ab94ee9e0d98bdd8e2a2f0da4" width="940" height="600" frameborder="0"></iframe>

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

Funding the Texas Right to Life group that is pushing for abortion bans.
Open Secrets

Wilks Brothers donate to Greg Abbott and ken Paxton
Open Secrets

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

Greg Abbott ignores risks from COVID and focuses on the abortion ban and bounties to vigilantes.

TakeAway: Follow the money to see how billionaires fund politicians, influence who gets appointed to be a judge and groups that impose their values on the rest of us.

Deepak
DemLabs

abortion bounty,vigilante,womens rights

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