HELPING HAND

Anti-Abortion Groups Pocketed Millions in Federal COVID-19 Aid, Says Report

Group headed by Trump personal attorney Jay Sekulow got between $1-2 million.

Anti-abortion and anti-LGBT groups got their hands on millions of dollars from the Trump administration’s coronavirus relief program, according to a report from The Guardian. The groups that pocketed funds include the American Family Association—which has previously blamed the Holocaust on gay people—and the American Center for Law & Justice, an anti-abortion group headed by Trump’s personal attorney Jay Sekulow. Both groups reportedly got between $1-2 million each under the Trump administration’s Paycheck Protection Program. “What we’re seeing with this is a lightyear leap into direct government financing of major Christian right political entities on a scale we’ve never seen before,” Frederick Clarkson from Political Research Associates told the newspaper. Pro-choice groups also received money—with Planned Parenthood getting a reported $80 million in PPP loans—but the government agency that oversees the program later tried to rescind those grants. No similar action was taken to retrieve money from the anti-abortion groups.