How Abortion Pills Became the Target of Leonard Leo’s Post-Roe Agenda

Leonard Leo has schemed for decades to push his far-right agenda and challenge abortion rights at all levels of government – including his years-long campaign to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Using the wealth of his dark-money groups like DonorsTrust —  the “dark money ATM of the right” —  Leo has bankrolled many of the leading conservative groups waging war against Americans’ reproductive rights and abortion access. His crowning achievement: playing a catalytic role in the nominations of all six conservative justices currently serving on the Supreme Court — and the consequent overturning of Roe v. Wade. 

As Leo’s influence grows, so does the threat to our most fundamental rights. The next item on his anti-choice to-do list? Ending critical access to medication abortion, which currently makes up the majority of abortions performed across the United States.

Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), an anti-choice dark-money group that helped overturn Roe and has accepted thousands from Leo-linked DonorsTrust, is suing the Food and Drug Administration on behalf of the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine over its approval of mifepristone, the first of two drugs used in a medication abortion. The case will be argued in front of US District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee and one of the first in the nation to attack the right to contraception after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision. 

ADF’s star attorney is Erin Hawley, a well known anti-abortion advocate and wife of Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO), who has strong ties to Leo’s network. Her secondary employer, the Independent Women’s Forum, has collected over $5 million in donations from Leo’s dark money web. 

ADF isn’t the only Leo-linked group behind in the movement to ban the abortion pill. Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America and Students for Life of America, two powerful anti-choice organizations in Leo’s network, are on the record attacking the FDA’s decision to permit pharmacies to distribute the pills. 

It’s no secret why Leonard Leo is pulling strings behind closed doors. Just like his ongoing efforts to undermine our democracy, kneecap environmental protections, and capture the Supreme Court, Leo’s mission to end Americans’ access to abortion is both dangerous and unpopular. If Judge Kacsmaryk rules to pull the main abortion pill from the market nationwide, it will have disastrous consequences for Americans everywhere. 

Read more about Leo and other right-wing activists attempting to undermine democracy and implement their extreme agenda by visiting LeonardLeo.org.