{"id":767789,"date":"2022-08-03T17:26:30","date_gmt":"2022-08-03T17:26:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/radiofree.asia\/?guid=0b32cb063e275a15e7de535462b71c8d"},"modified":"2022-08-03T17:26:30","modified_gmt":"2022-08-03T17:26:30","slug":"dark-money-groups-are-pushing-disinformation-to-downplay-the-overturn-of-roe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2022\/08\/03\/dark-money-groups-are-pushing-disinformation-to-downplay-the-overturn-of-roe\/","title":{"rendered":"Dark Money Groups Are Pushing Disinformation to Downplay the Overturn of \u201cRoe\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

As underscored by Kansas voters\u2019 resounding decision<\/a> this week to reject right-wing efforts to strip abortion rights from their state constitution, the deadly<\/a> overturn of Roe v. Wade <\/em>is wildly unpopular<\/a> among many voters across the country.<\/p>\n

But the same right-wing groups that helped to capture the Supreme Court — backed by ultra-wealthy donors they keep secret from the public — are working overtime to convince us that the overturn of Roe<\/em> isn\u2019t as dangerous as so many of us know it to be. Using dark money, they are mobilizing to reframe and cover over this anti-democratic, Christian-right coordinated effort to dominate our political system.<\/p>\n

The far right faction of the Supreme Court that handed down the Dobbs v. Jackson Women\u2019s Health Organization<\/em> decision overturning Roe<\/em> was put in place by a massive dark money web<\/a> coordinated by Federalist Society fundraiser and right-wing Catholic lawyer Leonard Leo. His network has raised nearly $600 million<\/a> in secret funding since 2014, not counting the past year. Leo himself hand-selected for Donald Trump three of the five justices that ruled to overturn Roe,<\/em> and worked to get the others installed on the court. All the while, his affiliated dark money groups worked intensively to push the Trump nominees onto the bench, despite widespread and deep concerns about their fitness to be judges.<\/p>\n

Leo predicted<\/a> the success of his agenda in a speech to funders of the secretive Christian-right Council for National Policy in reversing precedents and turning back Americans\u2019 rights to the pre-New Deal\/robber baron era. He bragged that \u201cno one in this room has probably experienced the kind of transformation that I think we are beginning to see\u201d in rulings by the court.<\/p>\n

Leo\u2019s network cannot be entirely separated from the dark money web of fossil fuel billionaire Charles Koch, who is a major funder of the Federalist Society and many of the groups that have filed amicus briefs with the Supreme Court this term and in previous terms. Koch\u2019s Americans for Prosperity organization spent millions to support the confirmation of Trump appointees, including Amy Coney Barrett, the daughter of a man who worked for decades as a fossil fuel industry lawyer<\/a>. It\u2019s no great mystery why. Koch\u2019s company, Koch Industries, will likely reap untold billions from decisions favoring the carbon industry, like the reactionary edict recently handed down by the Court\u2019s right-wing faction in West Virginia v. EPA<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Some of the same dark money groups that helped overturn Roe <\/em>have their sights set on attacking other fundamental rights. At the same time, however, some of the groups belonging to these dark money networks are strategically attempting to market bogus ideas to the public that downplay the severity of the overturn of Roe<\/em>, even as it will result in a wave of forced births and maternal deaths. Here are some of the bogus claims they\u2019re trying to push:<\/p>\n

Bogus Claim #1: The Overturn of Roe<\/em> Won\u2019t Hurt Anyone<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Research has shown that abortion bans, like those that went into immediate effect in 22 states following the overturn of Roe<\/em>, could lead to a 21 percent increase<\/a> in pregnancy-related deaths in a country that already has one of the highest mortality rates in the industrialized world.<\/p>\n