Tim Michels’ Donations to Radical Anti-Abortion Groups Used to Harass Abortion Patients and Track Their Location

Last week, Tim Michels came under fire for using his and his wife’s personal foundation to fund radical anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ+ groups. Now, new reporting is showing exactly where some of Tim Michels’ $200,000 in donations to radical anti-abortion groups is going, and what it’s being used for.

The Wisconsin Examiner reports among Michels’ anti-abortion donations is “$25,000 to the Pro-Life Wisconsin Education Task Force…a right-wing anti-abortion group with a platform aimed at outlawing all abortions, without exceptions for protecting the life of the mother. The group also works to ban all forms of contraception and prohibit in vitro fertilization.”

The task force that Michels donated to trains individuals to harass people outside of abortion clinics and “pressure patients to change their minds about their decision.”

Michels also donated $20,000 to the Veritas Society, “which uses cell phone location data to track women who visit Planned Parenthood locations in order to send them targeted anti-abortion ads.”

Instead of explaining why he’s funding organizations that want to treat women like criminals and ban contraception, Michels encouraged violence, calling on his supporters to take up “pitchforks and torches.”

DGA Senior Communications Advisor Christina Amestoy said, “Tim Michels’ support of anti-abortion and anti-contraception extremism has left a paper trail, and when you follow the money, it’s clear that Tim Michels supports treating women like criminals by tracking their locations, outlawing abortion with no exceptions, and banning contraception. If these are Tim Michels’ values, they’re wrong for Wisconsin.”