ICYMI: Tim Michels Personally Funded $250,000 to Radical Anti-Abortion and Anti-LGBTQ+ Groups Last Year

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “The donations provide a window into how Michels may approach policymaking on such issues if elected governor”

Today, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel exposed Tim Michels for using his and his wife’s personal foundation to fund radical anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ+ groups.

Michels donated $250,000 — 15% of his total donations in 2020 — to extreme groups that oppose all forms of contraception and IVF, support total abortion bans without any exceptions, and attack transgender children.

Michels has said he supports Wisconsin’s 1849 law banning abortion without exceptions for rape and incest, wouldn’t commit to protecting contraception, and said he opposes same-sex marriage.

“The donations provide a window into how Michels may approach policymaking on such issues if elected governor,” the Journal Sentinel reported. “Abortion is a key issue leading into the general election as Democrats are seeking to broaden rights and Republicans, including Michels, want to greatly restrict the procedures.”

Read key excerpts from the article below.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin Republican governor candidate Tim Michels uses his personal foundation to fund anti-gay and anti-abortion groups

Wisconsin’s Republican candidate for governor Tim Michels and his wife donated $250,000 to anti-LGBTQ and anti-abortion groups, representing about 15% of his total donations in 2020.

The Timothy and Barbara Michels Family Foundation funded organizations that oppose all forms of contraception and abortions in all cases. The foundation also spent thousands on churches with anti-LGBTQ beliefs.

The donations provide a window into how Michels may approach policymaking on such issues if elected governor.

Abortion is a key issue leading into the general election as Democrats are seeking to broaden rights and Republicans, including Michels, want to greatly restrict the procedures.

[…]

The Michels foundation gave a total of $175,000 in 2020 to Wisconsin Right to Life and Pro Life Wisconsin Education Task Force and Avail NYC, a New York City crisis pregnancy center.

Pro Life Wisconsin’s agenda calls for completely outlawing abortion and would ban most common forms of contraception and birth control and prohibit in vitro fertilization. That goes beyond the 1849 abortion ban.

[…]

The most recent Marquette University Law School Poll showed 28% of Republicans and 62% of independents opposed the recent Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Overall, 60% of poll respondents opposed the decision.

In the same poll, 79% of Republicans said they believe Wisconsin should allow a woman to obtain a legal abortion if she became pregnant as the result of rape or incest.

The Michels’ foundation donated $10,000 to Christ Fellowship in Miami, according to 990 reports.

The church gained notoriety in 2015, when one of its most famous parishioners, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, announced his bid for presidency and the megachurch’s leaders anti-trans and anti-gay comments were discovered.

The Christ Fellowship’s pastor, Omar Giritli, in June called arguments for exception to abortions in cases of rape or incest “deceptive reasoning.”

[…]

Giritli, who was named pastor of the church in 2019, also preached in May that God believed transgender individuals were an “abomination” and a “rebellion to their creator.”

The couple also donated $50,000 to Spring Creek Church in Pewaukee and $5,000 to Elmbrook Church in Brookfield.

Spring Creek Church’s Pastor Chip Bernhard has suggested that people who have an abortion need forgiveness, and allowing transgender children to use the bathroom of their choice is “awful.”

[…]

The foundation also gave to a handful of anti-abortion and Christian organizations including:

$69,000 to the Faith Lutheran Church and School of Fond du Lac.

$20,000 to the Milwaukee Veritas Society.

$12,650 to the New Beginnings Pregnancy Center, Fond du Lac.

$4,000 to the Pro Life Wisconsin Education Task Force.

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