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Conservative kingpin deploys $1.6 billion slush fund to expand decades-long anti-abortion crusade

WASHINGTON, D.C. – New reporting in The New Republic today exposed the latest in conservative kingpin Leonard Leo’s decades-long crusade against abortion access. Leo’s network is now leading an effort against the reauthorization of PEPFAR, the vital and historically bipartisan AIDS prevention program that has saved 25 million lives since its inception. Key provisions of the program expired after House Republicans opposed funding in the most recent government spending deal.

Groups that urged Congress to abandon this lifesaving program, including the far-right extremist group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, received more than $10 million from Leo’s right-wing non-profit network since 2020. Beyond his extensive financial support, Leo also served as co-chair for at least one of the anti-abortion groups, Students for Life, which signed onto the anti-PEPFAR letter during his tenure. 

 

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It’s clear Leonard Leo has doubled down on his anti-abortion crusade post-Dobbs — and he’s bringing congressional Republicans along with him. After Roe was overturned, abortion advocates warned that the right would continue to attack access to reproductive care in all its forms. We’re watching that play out as Leo desperately attempts to tie abortion to the lifesaving care provided by PEPFAR.”

Accountable.US president Caroline Ciccone.

“It’s an outgrowth of [Leo’s] previous approach,” Ciccone added. “He’s accomplished what he needed, what he wanted in court, and now he’s turning to new places.”

As The New Republic’s Melissa Gira Grant notes, “this attempt to hold billions of dollars in HIV/AIDS funding hostage over any support for abortion should make one thing clear: that Leo’s extensive anti-abortion ambitions reach outside the courts, into the legislative branch.”

As Leo continues to deploy his $1.6 billion slush fund, he is moving beyond his court capture campaign and doubling down on an extreme anti-abortion agenda that is out of touch with everyday Americans — from funding state-level abortion fights to bankrolling the campaign to ban the abortion pill.

Learn more about Leonard Leo, his dangerous agenda, and his shady nonprofit network at LeonardLeo.org.

 

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