Press Releases
Meet the Far-Right Forces Responsible for Overturning Roe
As Roe v. Wade anniversary approaches, right-wing actors continue to push radical, unpopular anti-abortion agenda
WASHINGTON, DC – With the 51st anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling fast approaching, meet the far-right forces responsible for the wildly-unpopular Dobbs decision which overturned Roe, abandoning nearly five decades of precedent. These right-wing actors are now leading the charge to go even further than Dobbs and abolish abortion access at every level.
Many of the same extremists responsible for overturning Roe are still hard at work to strip women of their fundamental reproductive rights. From Leonard Leo to the Alliance Defending Freedom, these same far-right activists are leveraging dark money networks and sham court cases to force a radical, unpopular — and ultimately undemocratic — agenda on everyday Americans."
Accountable.US president Caroline Ciccone
Meet the key forces responsible for the overturning of Roe:
- Leonard Leo: Far-right judicial activist Leonard Leo orchestrated the decades-long campaign to overturn Roe and has since been pivotal in moving every piece on the chess board: selecting anti-choice judges, challenging abortion rights at all levels of government, and bankrolling anti-choice advocacy groups like Susan B. Anthony and Students for Life. Leo’s network has also funded state-level anti-abortion efforts, bankrolled the campaign to ban the abortion pill, and held a critical AIDS prevention program hostage over false ties to abortion.
- Alliance Defending Freedom: Alliance Defending Freedom is a Southern Poverty Law Center-designated hate group that uses litigation to roll back rights for Americans everywhere. ADF has waged a longtime campaign to undermine and eliminate access to abortion, touting radical anti-abortion stances, promoting unscientific claims about the physical and mental “risks” of abortion, and frequently using unfounded conspiracies to attack Planned Parenthood. As ADF itself proudly states, the hate group was involved in the overturning of Roe “from the very beginning.” Now, ADF is behind the legal challenge to mifepristone set to be heard by the Supreme Court this term.
- Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America: Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America is an “increasingly influential and hardline campaign group” that aimed to make abortion a central political issue. The extremist group — which has taken millions from Leonard Leo’s network — directly pressed the Supreme Court to overturn Roe. Since, the group has doubled-down on its extremism, declaring its next steps to be restricting abortion “in every state and in every legislature, including the Congress.”
- Americans United for Life: Americans United for Life, which filed a key amicus brief in Dobbs, has helped establish hundreds of anti-abortion bills in over 40 states through model legislation, coordinating with state legislators, and in the courts. It also is part of the coalition of Leonard Leo-funded anti-abortion groups attempting to block critical AIDS relief by drawing false ties to abortion access funding. Americans United for Life leadership are members of the secretive Council for National Policy, which also counts Leonard Leo and House Speaker Mike Johnson as members.
Learn more about the right-wing actors working to force an extreme agenda — and the far-right funders bankrolling their efforts — at MonitoringInfluence.org.
###
