Corporate Accountability Action Launches #OfftheBANWagon Campaign To Hold Financial Backers of Texas Abortion Ban Accountable

WASHINGTON, Sept. 23, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Following the enactment of SB8 in Texas – an unconstitutional law that will leave millions of women without access to critical abortion care – Corporate Accountability Action is fighting back by launching #OffTheBANWagon. The new project will shine a light on the corporations that have bankrolled the campaigns of the Texas state legislators who sponsored this cruel abortion ban.

AT&T, NBC Universal, Time Warner, and Charter Communications spent over $1 million financing the campaigns of Texas legislators that effectively ended 50 years of precedent established by Roe v. Wade and repeatedly affirmed.

These powerful corporations have been publicly advocating for equity and empowerment for women while behind the scenes spending hundreds of thousands of dollars propping up state legislators who continue to push and champion harmful legislation that stands in direct contradiction to the company's statements.

Click here to watch CAA's first ad calling out AT&T that's set to air in the Dallas media market and on digital beginning this week.

Corporate Donor Contributions to Anti-Abortion Lawmakers

• AT&T donated $645,383 to the primary sponsors in Texas and $22,900 to the sponsors of HB 1510 still serving in the Mississippi legislature.
• Time Warner Cable/Charter Communications donated $523,661 to the primary sponsors in Texas. 
• NBC Universal donated $88,000 to the primary sponsors in Texas.

AT&T, headquartered in Dallas, Texas, donated the largest amount to the sponsors of the extreme Texas abortion ban while widely claiming that "one of the company's 'core values' was 'gender equity and the empowerment of women."

"Women in Texas and across the nation deserve to know that companies they've long patronized, which claim to want to empower women, are actually doing the exact opposite. Through their support of anti-abortion extremists, companies like AT&T helped enact one of the most cruel and disgraceful laws in the country, and they should be held accountable," said #OffTheBANWagon spokesperson Julie McClain Downey. "This law not only put an end to safe and legal abortions in Texas, but it interjected perfect strangers into the private, time sensitive, and deeply personal medical decisions of individuals – on strict and baseless timelines and without exceptions for victims of rape and incest. We must call these companies out for their hypocrisy and put an end to the enactment of similar bans being proposed around the country."

"This abortion ban – part of the Republican plan to make reproductive health care completely out-of-reach – is devastating, which is why companies that backed the lawmakers responsible for this cannot be permitted to bury their heads in the sand," said reproductive rights advocate and American Bridge co-chair Cecile Richards. "By funding politicians that have made clear their disdain for reproductive freedom, corporations are giving lawmakers across the country the green light to ban essential health services while giving lip service to 'equity' and 'empowerment.' We cannot let this go on, which is why it's so important to call out their hypocrisy and stop them from continuing to harm people."

SB8, recently passed by the Texas legislature and signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott (R), effectively bans abortions for millions of women with no exceptions for victims of rape or incest. Moreover, it allows for vigilante justice – giving any individual the right to sue another over a personal medical decision. A similar law has been passed in Mississippi and is on the docket to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court this fall. As a result of the Texas ban, state legislatures across the country are considering extreme abortion ban laws of their own, taking away long-established reproductive rights.

The #OffTheBANWagon campaign, a project of Corporate Accountability Action and American Bridge 21^st Century, will be releasing advertisements focused on educating Texas residents on the corporate backers of the ban, along with the critical role these major corporations played in the ultimate passing of the law.

To learn more about how to hold these corporations accountable, visit OffTheBANWagon.org or Twitter @CAAction2021, Facebook at /corporateaccountabilityaction, or on Instagram @corporateaccountabilityaction.

SOURCE Corporate Accountability Action