The Independent Women’s Forum isn’t explicitly an anti-abortion group, but it worked to create the conservative supermajority on the Supreme Court.
By Sam Biddle, The Intercept
When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the country’s top internet companies quickly responded with commitments to help employees in states that moved to ban abortion. In an implicit signal of support for abortion rights, the companies said they would help those employees seek abortions in states where the procedure remains legal.
In the years leading up to the seismic reproductive rights decision, however, the tech giants sponsored a controversial group that’s worked tirelessly to put the Supreme Court under conservative control, setting the stage for Roe’s reversal.
The Independent Women’s Forum traces its origins back to the 1991 fight to confirm the Supreme Court nomination of Clarence Thomas. Since then, the group has expanded into promoting a litany of perennial right-wing causes like climate denial, immigration alarmism, and deregulation, but a conservative-dominated Supreme Court remained a focus.
Public relations plays a key role in its operation. With savvy self-branding as a pro-woman organization, the group fought for the appointment of conservative justices to the Supreme Court. The IWF couched support for Bret Kavanaugh as good feminism and any opposition to Amy Coney Barrett as sexism — despite well-founded concerns that their ascensions to the court would spell the end of Roe. The IWF wields a skillful mix of media placement, op-eds, television punditry, and other contributions to the conservative content ecosystem.
Recent Posts
The World is Getting Too Hot to Feed Itself
Take Action Now A new U.N. report maps how extreme heat is tearing through every layer of the global food system — and mostly overlooks the people at…
Cuba’s Fate Should Not Be in U.S. Hands
Take Action Now U.S. officials are relying on Trump’s executive order of January 29 which, without evidence, accused Cuba of being an “extraordinary…
As Opposition Grows, Oklahoma Organizers Share How They Halted an ICE Warehouse
Take Action Now Organizers also channeled mass outrage into long-haul organizing for immigration justice in Oklahoma and beyond.By Lydia…
Meet the Four Democrats Who’ll Decide If Trump Gets His Domestic Spying Law
Take Action Now “It all comes down to those four,” said an advocate, “and if they are going to continue to try to hand Trump warrantless…