What we found is that in the Gulf South, oil and gas companies' charitable arms are funding the anti-abortion movement.
This includes
@Shell_USA
,
@ErgonEnergy
,
@SouthernCompany
, etc. Mississippi has created a way for them to give MORE and for a BENEFIT this time.
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In April, Mississippi enacted the Pregnancy Resource Act. It gives $3.5M in tax credits to corporations for donations to “pregnancy resource centers.”
These PRCs, which convince women not to get abortions, are pretty secretive. So, we started digging. 🧵
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Who gives to PRCs? Hard ask. Most PRCs in MS do not disclose their donors. Many even offer their donors secrecy.
Almost every PRC denied me an interview, including a major bill supporter — Center for Pregnancy Choices in Jackson, which so far has gotten over $400K in donations.
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So, we looked for clues in other 990s. Turns out MANY corporate private foundations funnel hundreds of thousands of dollars into antiabortion policy groups and PRCs.
These foundations aren’t eligible for the credit but offer clues on who’s giving to these vague centers.
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Oil and gas companies I interviewed refused to explain their donations.
But many say the donations go through their employee matching gifts programs — that is their employees that give, not them. And, some PRCs advertise that. Example:
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Every single one of these companies is run by wealthy, white men. But the people most likely to get an abortion in MS are Black women. I asked advocates of the bill — how could a tax credit for these types of companies to anti-abortion PRCs possibly help Black women?🤔
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Some say it won’t. Advocates of the bill say the credit goes to women and babies, but those words aren’t even in the text. In order to even get the credit, PRCs have to be chosen and certified by
@ChooseLifeMS
, run by the people who helped overturn Roe v. Wade.
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One woman impacted by this is Getty Israel, who runs a clinic that gives resources to pregnant women and helps reduce birth inequities for Black and brown women.
She can't qualify for donations, because she refuses to call herself an anti-abortion organization.
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Israel even approached Ergon Inc., directly asking for financial help to support her center. But that didn’t work either.
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An architect of the bill explains, the outcome of this tax credit is even more corporate $$$ goes to the anti-abortion agenda.
State Rep.
@zakiyasummers
voted no for this reason — she saw it as an attempt at healthcare in a post-Roe world with “a whole lot of strings attached.”
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So who wins?
As Mississippi's last abortion clinic is shuttered, state legislators say PRCs are a first stop for pregnant women in need.
But my sources say... corporations like Shell, not women and children, are going to benefit. [END 🧵]
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